Darvazeye royaha

Dreams’ Gate
“It feels as though my camera is filled with despair, just like me, it is filled with sadness, just like me.”

The filmmaker Negin Ahmadi takes the radical decision to accompany an all-female militia fighting in Syrian Kurdistan. Like many of the women she portrays there – for whom joining the fight against ISIS was also a way to escape social restraints – Negin tries to discover what makes life worth living. Negin’s filming process matures into a self-exploring diary. Her recordings alternate between the brutality of combat and intimate moments between the women soldiers, combing each other’s hair or exposing their wounded bodies. A storytelling that subverts the grand narratives of war. A composition of personal experiences weaved into political images, Darvazeye royaha asks questions about the role of women in battle and the power of cinematic images to illuminate social issues.
by Negin Ahmadi Iran / France / Norway / USA 2023 Farsi, Kurdish 65’ Colour World premiere | Debut film | Documentary Form recommendation: 16 years and up

Crew

Director Negin Ahmadi
Screenplay Negin Ahmadi
Cinematography Negin Ahmadi
Editing Loghman Sokhanvar
Music Hossein Mirzagholi
Sound Behnia Yousefi
Producer Elaheh Nobakht
Co-Producers Hamidreza Tabarraei, Håvard Wettland Gossé
Co-Production Spætt Film Norwegen
Ava Studio Paris Paris

Produced by

Eli Image

Negin Ahmadi

The Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker was born in Iran in 1989 and has a degree in economics from the University of Imam Khomeini in Qazvin. She is currently studying at the Iranian Youth Cinema Society, a non-profit Iranian film education organisation.

Filmography

2023 Darvazeye royaha (Dreams’ Gate); documentary

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023