Shahid

Join us at the Goethe-Institut Glasgow for a screening of Shahid, a brilliantly inventive film that blurs the lines between reality, fiction, theatre and musical.

In Shahid, director Narges Shahid Kalhor casts an actor to play a version of herself, a woman determined to cast off the name “Shahid” (martyr) and reclaim her identity. But her journey is interrupted by the sudden appearance of her great-grandfather, a celebrated martyr from Iran’s past, who insists she keep the name that has been passed down through generations. He follows her, joined by his dancing companions. The Bavarian authorities send her to a psychologist, who, like her, has a difficult name.

By the end, frustration reigns: the director battles red tape, the actor struggles with the director’s demands, the great-grandfather resists change, and the film itself seems to come undone.

Set against the backdrop of a picturesque German town, Shahid spins in circles - visually rich, emotionally layered, and full of biting humour. This is ambiguous autofiction at its most daring, blending visual art, poetry and song into a tragicomic act of self-empowerment in exile.

2024 | Director: Narges Kalhorn | Germany | 84 min | German with English subtitles | Cast: 
Baharak Abdolifard, Nima Nazarinia, Saleh Rozati, Thomas Sprekelsen, Stefan Ribbentrop, Carine Huber, Lilli Pongratz, Armin Makumbo, Thomas Hupfer, Rakim Hazaz, Nina Wesemann

Source: 74. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin