Presented at the Venice Film Festival in the Horizons section, it is the Iranian artist and filmmaker’s first project in English. Co-written by Jean Claude Carrière, Buñuel’s historical collaborator, the movie stars Matt Dillon and Isabella Rossellini, among others. Set in New Mexico in the near future, it tells the story of Simin (Sheila Vand), an Iranian immigrant photographer employed by the US government’s Census Office, who’s started a program of recording dreams. Going from door to door to collect dreams, Simin shoots portraits of the inhabitants, Americans from different ethnic, economic and religious backgrounds. Ironic and touching, the film is a satirical look at the United States and its troubling social situation. It deals with the greatness of the American “experiment” by highlighting its contrasting aspects. The two male characters that the protagonist meets are an idealist, naïve, romantic, hippie (William Moseley), and a cowboy-turned-detective (Matt Dillon), an arrogant macho man.

Iran 1957, lives and works in New York. She has held numerous exhibitions internationally, among which: Art Institute of Chicago; Castello di Rivoli, Turin; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Serpentine Gallery, London. She has been the recipient of the Golden Lion Award at the 48th Venice Biennale (1999) and the Silver Lion Award at the 66th Venice Film Festival (2009).

Shoja Azari

Selected Filmography

2017 Looking for Oum Kulthum 2009 Women Without Men

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