EXILE FAMILY MOVIE

A film by Arash T. Riahi
Documentary  |  94 min  |  AUT  |  2006
A co-production with ORF and ARTE

SYNOPSIS

A family’s story – typically crazy and exceptional at the same time. A film about home and exile, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters and all the other relatives, close and distant, in an extended Persian family. Some of them emigrated to Europe or America, though the majority has stayed in Iran. Regardless of all the dangers involved, they secretly meet after 20 years at a place which won’t raise suspicion among the Iranian authoritites: Mecca. They come from America, Sweden, Austria and Iran to laugh, argue, cook and celebrate. This is accompanied by an excessive amount of hugging and kissing, and also a clash between Muslim and Western cultures. A bittersweet film that will make you laugh and cry.

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WORLD SALES

FIRST HAND FILMS

DISTRIBUTION

AUSTRIA
FILMLADEN FILMVERLEIH

FOLLOW

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS

MAX OPHÜLS FILM FESTIVAL 2007 
Award for Best Documentary
Interfilm Award

LEIPZIG DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL 2006 Golden Dove for Best Documentary

LEIPZIG DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL 2006 FIPRESCI Award and Best Documentary Film

DIAGONALE FILM FESTIVAL 2006
Award for Best Austrian Documentary

ECOFILMS FESTIVAL RHODOS 2006
Award for 2nd best midlength documentary

CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILMFESTIVAL 2006 Silver Hugo for Best Documentary

THE MAGNIFICENT 7 2007
The 7 best european documentaries of the year

FESTIVALS (SELECTION)

Max Ophüls Film Festival 2007
Leipzig Documentary Film Festival 2006 
Diagonale Film Festival 2006
Vision du Réel 2006
Ecofilms Festival Rhodos 2006
Bellaria Filmfestival Italien 2006
18th “États Généraux du Film documentaire” 2006
Chicago International Filmfestival 2006
Copenhagen DOX 2006
Festival des Libertes Brussels 2006
The Magnificent 7 2007
4th PLANETE DOC REVIEW 2007

QUOTES

»Confrontation of cultures, overflowing emotions. Full of joy and charm!« – LE MONDE DIPLOMATHIQUE

»One of the best documentaries of the year.« 
– CLAUS PHILIPP, DER STANDARD

»It’s wonderful how insight into connections that currently shape world politics are provided from a personal perspective.« – TAZ

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

During adolescence I didn't think much about life in exile, but as I got older these thoughts gradually consumed me and became a stronger part of my life. I began to realize how helpless we were in exile especially when news of personal tragedies reached us.

I wanted to find out everything that I had forgotten and couldn't discover in exile in order to get closer to my family and the current situation in Iran. I wanted to understand how history and society has managed to forbid us mourning and what strategies the human being creates in order to survive the pain of being separated from their family by force. In this film my siblings and I go through a process of understanding why we are where we are and start to open ourselves to the point of view of normal Muslim people.

INFO

RUNNING TIME – 94 minutes
ORIG. LANGUAGES – Farsi, German, English
LOCATIONS – Saudi Arabia, Canada, Austria
SUBTITLES – German
SCREENING FORMAT – DCP
SOUND FORMAT – Dolby Digital 5.1
ASPECT RATIO – 1.85:1
PICTURES/SEC – 24

CREW

WRITER & DIRECTOR
Arash T. Riahi

CINEMATOGRAPHERS & SOUND RECORDISTS
Arash T. Riahi, Arman T. Riaha, Azy Ali, Bernhard J. Schmid, Hossein Ilse Lahofer, Michael Katz

MUSIC COMPOSER
Karuan

SOUND DESIGN
Bernhard J. Schmids

EDITORS
Dieter Pichler, Arash T. Riahi

PRODUCTION MANAGERS
Stephanie Wagner, Raphael Barth

PRODUCERS
Geza Horvat, Arash T. Riahi

FEATURING

Hamid
Parvin
Asy
Arman
Arash
Moti
Massud/Sam
Leila
Kaveh
Ghodsi
Pajam
Eti
Amme Hamdam

PARTNERS