Sepideh Farsi was born in Tehran and came to Paris in 1984 to study mathematics, but soon drifted towards cinema. One of her first works was a documentary about the Iranian diaspora, The World Is My Home. Two years later, she continued her career with a portrait of the Indian filmmaker Homi Sethna, which won the Fipresci Prize in Bombay and two more prizes in France (Cinéma du Réel). Still connected to her country, she followed up with Men of Fire, a reportage about the firefighters of Tehran.

In 2002, she returned to a question of identity with her film Journey of Maryam, in which a girl searches for her father and discovers with her own eyes a country besieged by religion. In 2003 followed Dreams of Dust, depicting a journey between life and death. In 2006, she shot The Gaze, in which the theme of exile and return to the country is again central to the plot.

In spring 2008, again roaming Tehran, she shot Tehran Without Permission with a cell phone (due to government restrictions on filming). In 2009, she was a member of the jury for Best First Feature at the Locarno International Film Festival. The film and her political engagements led to her being banned from her country since 2009. In 2014 she made Red Rose, which breaks the taboos of Iranian cinema by including sex scenes and addressing the relationships between the young protest generation and the generation that had challenged the Shah’s regime. Her last documentary 7 Veils won the Grand Prize of FIDMarseille – International Film Festival Marseille in 2017. Farsi’s latest film The Siren is her first animated feature film.

Accolades

Sepideh Farsi and Sébastien Onomo
Best Animated Film, 2023

Sepideh Farsi and Sébastien Onomo

Best Animated Film, 2023

Sepideh Farsi and Sébastien Onomo

The Siren (La Sirène)

1980, Abadan. The capital of the Iranian oil industry is resisting an Iraqi siege. Fourteen-year-old Omid has braved the siege and stayed in the city…

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Films

The Siren (La Sirène)

The Siren (La Sirène)

France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium

The Siren (La Sirène)

1980, Abadan. The capital of the Iranian oil industry is resisting an Iraqi siege. Fourteen-year-old Omid has braved the siege and stayed in the city…

More Details

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