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Looking for Oum Kulthum
by Shirin Neshat
Presented at Lo Schermo dell’arte 2017
Cast: Neda Rahmanian, Yasmin Raeis
Mehdi Moinzadeh, Kais Nashif,
Nour Gmar, Najia Skalli
Soundtrack: Amine Bouhafa
Subject: Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari
Screenplay: Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari in collaboration con Ahmad Diba
Photography: Martin Gschlacht
Editing: Nadia Ben Rachid
Mehdi Moinzadeh, Kais Nashif,
Nour Gmar, Najia Skalli
Soundtrack: Amine Bouhafa
Subject: Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari
Screenplay: Shirin Neshat, Shoja Azari in collaboration con Ahmad Diba
Photography: Martin Gschlacht
Editing: Nadia Ben Rachid
Sound: Claus Benischke-Lang
Producers: Roman Paul, Gerhard Meixner, Bruno Wagner, Martin Gschlactht, Antonin Svoboda- ShojaAzari, Shirin Neshat
Production: Razor Film Produktion, Coop99 Filmproduktion, In Between Art Film, VIVO Film COOP99
Distribution: In Between Art Film, VIVO Film
Producers: Roman Paul, Gerhard Meixner, Bruno Wagner, Martin Gschlactht, Antonin Svoboda- ShojaAzari, Shirin Neshat
Production: Razor Film Produktion, Coop99 Filmproduktion, In Between Art Film, VIVO Film COOP99
Distribution: In Between Art Film, VIVO Film
Shirin Neshat returns, after her acclaimed film Women Without Men, to talk about the female condition and tell the story of Iran from women’s perspective.
Mitra, an Iranian director in exile, is working on her dream project: a film about the life of legendary Egyptian singer Oum Kulthum (1904-1975), whose music and extraordinary personality are still loved by millions of Muslims. But the more Mitra realizes the difficulties faced by the diva as a woman artist in a male-dominated society, the more her personal battle connects with the singer’s, bringing her to the brink of a crisis. In her work, Shirin Neshat has often explored stories about Muslim women, and artistic expression in the Islamic world.
In this new work, built as a film within the film, which the Iranian artist worked on for over six years, Neshat overlaps her story with Oum’s, edits repertory photos with her own shots, and shows again the force of her gaze, which allows her to move from film to opera, from photography to installation.
Shirin Neshat. Awarded a prize in 1999 at the 48th Venice Biennale for her videos Turbulent and Rapture, she won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2009 for her movie Women Without Men. She had solo exhibitions at Museo Correr in Venice, at the Tate Gallery in London, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, at the London Serpentine Gallery, at the Vienna Art Museum, among others. Her works are in the
collections of major international museums. In 2006, she won the Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize; in 2010, The Huffington Post named her Artist of the Decade. At the last Salzburg Festival, she directed her first opera, Aida.
collections of major international museums. In 2006, she won the Dorothy and Lilian Gish Prize; in 2010, The Huffington Post named her Artist of the Decade. At the last Salzburg Festival, she directed her first opera, Aida.
Selected Filmography
2009 Women Without Men
2009 Women Without Men