Irani Bag
2020 · 8m · Iran / Singapore / UK
Directed by Maryam Tafakory
Genres: essay film, experimental
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic, melancholic
A split-screen video essay examining how handbags function as mediators of touch and intimacy across 24 Iranian films made between 1990 and 2018, revealing how censorship of physical contact between men and women in post-revolution cinema transforms bags into prosthetics for touch.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Tafakory locating an entire censorship regime in a single recurring prop — the handbag as prosthetic for forbidden touch. Smart enough I'd watch it twice.
Tafakory's split-screen handbag taxonomy is one of those rare video essays that genuinely teaches you to watch a national cinema differently. YouTube hosts only an excerpt, alas.
Split-screen across 24 Iranian films isolating one recurring prop - the handbag as touch-prosthetic - is the kind of editorial conceit that turns censorship into evidence. YouTube has only the 45-second excerpt available, so the full 7:38 needs another source.
Reviews
Tafakory's most didactic film, is a rumination on the role of bags as props in Iranian postrevolutionary cinema and a prosthetic for touch under the eyes of the voyeuristic government that watches and controls.
Festivals
- International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021, Ammodo Tiger Short Award
- Chicago International Film Festival 2021, Gold Hugo Award
- Ann Arbor Film Festival 2022, Barbara Hammer Feminist Film Award
- London Short Film Festival 2022, Runner-up, Best UK Short Film
- Melbourne International Film Festival 2021, Best Experimental Short Film
- Documenta Madrid, Jury Prize
- Singapore International Film Festival