Shahid

Shahid is an auto-fictional and hybrid film that moves between reality and fiction, theatre and musical. The director and screenwriter plays with her own past: the film tells the story of a filmmaker who wants to have the word Shahid (meaning martyr) removed from her name because it is a burden to her.

Narges Kalhor (born 1984 in Tehran, based in Munich) is an award-winning Iranian-German director, video artist, and editor. Her works move between documentary, experimental art, and fiction, often exploring themes such as exile, identity, feminist perspectives, and political resistance. During her studies at the Tehran Film Academy, she was mentored by well-known filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami. In 2009, she applied for political asylum during a visit to Germany, which attracted international attention because she is the daughter of the highest-ranking cultural advisor to the then Iranian President Ahmadinejad. After her application was accepted, she studied at the University of Television and Film Munich. Her graduation film ‘In the Name of Scheherazade or the First Beer Garden in Tehran’ was awarded the Goethe-Institut prize for best documentary film at the DOK Leipzig film festival in 2019.

Year of Production: 2024

Time: 84’

Country: Germany

Language: German, English and Farsi. Original version with Spanish subtitles

Director: Narges Kalhor

Cast:  Narges Kalhor, Nima Nazarini, Thomas Sprekelsen, Carine Huber, Saleh Rozati, Antonia Meier, Lilli Pongratz, Armin Makumbo, Thomas Hupfer, Rakim Hazaz, Nina Wesemann 

Production: Michael Kalb

Script: Narges Kalhor, Aydin Alinejadsomeeh

Director of Photography: Felix Pflieger

Production Companies:  Michael Kalb Filmproduktion, ZDF / Das kleine Fernsehspiel, Der FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, HessenFilm & Medien

Awarded the Caligari Film Prize and CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award at the Berlinale 2024, as well as the Hessian Film Award for Best Feature Film

Premiere in Spain