Shahid (2024) — Film Overview
Shahid is Narges Kalhor’s hybrid, autofictional feature: a witty, politically charged blend of documentary, theatre, musical and behind-the-scenes meta-cinema. The story follows a filmmaker who wants to remove “Shahid” (“martyr”) from her surname—sending her through Bavarian bureaucracy, therapy sessions and dreamlike encounters with Iran’s past, including a great-grandfather who appears with a chorus of pious dancers. Premiering in the Berlinale Forum 2024, the film went on to win the Caligari Film Prize.
Across 84 brisk minutes, Kalhor toggles tones—satire, lament, and play—while keeping the questions of identity and inherited ideology front and center. Critics noted the film’s free-form collage and its oscillation between comedy and confrontation.
Baharak’s Performance
Baharak Abdolifard plays “Narges,” the director’s alter-ego and on-screen anchor. Her performance is intentionally unshowy: steady eye contact and measured cadence let the film’s wild formal shifts orbit around a human center. In bureaucratic scenes she leans into dry humor; in staged, ritual-tinged passages she holds the frame with quiet gravity—bridging the film’s documentary bite and theatrical flourish.
Director: Narges Kalhor
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