“It’s a protest movement behind windows.” That’s how two Iranian film students describe their new documentary, Memories of a Window, which is dedicated to ordinary people in Iran who risk their lives filming state violence – often from the windows of their homes or cars.
Inspired by the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising, the documentary premieres this week at the Berlin International Film Festival. It was made by Mehraneh Salimian and Amin Pakparvar, now students in Chicago, and is dedicated to Shirin Alizadeh, a woman killed while filming the crackdown on the protests.
In late 2022, a video that went viral showed the moment Alizadeh was shot by security forces while recording a bloody clash with protesters on her phone. Her last words were: “Film it!”
That same day, Salimian was graduating from art school, and that call became the moral axis of the documentary. The two filmmakers worked with a vast archive of anonymous videos – some 2,000 clips recorded on phones – as well as footage filmed from their Tehran apartment during the 2022–23 protests.
The film focuses on the perspective of those filming from a space “in between”: not on the street, but not completely safe inside the house either. “It was a clash between the lies of the state media and what we were experiencing,” says Salimian. “People started filming and publishing them anonymously. It was like a protest happening behind the windows.”
On September 22, 2022, Alizadeh was in a car with her husband and two companions, returning to Isfahan, when they saw protesters being shot in the city of Salman Shahr. Her footage shows the crowd and security forces opening fire. Moments later, a bullet penetrated the rear window and struck her in the neck and head; she later died in hospital, according to Amnesty International.
These shocking images are interspersed in the film with scenes of hope: neighbors singing protest songs from their balconies and windows. “For decades, Iranians have protested and their voices have been suppressed,” Pakparvar says. “But courage is contagious. They are back on the streets.”
The protests began as a protest against restrictions on women's rights, including the mandatory hijab, and grew into a broader movement. Authorities responded with internet shutdowns to stop the distribution of the videos, but some activists managed to use alternative connections, including Starlink satellites, to get the footage out of the country.
Due to student visas in the US and a travel ban set to return in 2025, the two authors will not be able to physically attend the Berlin premiere, but will connect via video. Reactions in Chicago have been strong, with students comparing the film to China's experience during Covid lockdowns and the American Black Lives Matter activism.
Still, Salimian and Pakparvar remain optimistic about the future. “Today we know exactly what freedom we want,” Pakparvar says. “Millions of people are aware of this – and we are moving towards it.” /GazetaExpress/
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