Isaac Feldberg

RogerEbert.com

Of the films competing for the Crystal Globe at the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, only one—Soheil Beiraghi’s “Bidad,” the title of which translates to “Outcry”—was kept secret until shortly before the start of the festival.

That’s because Beiraghi’s independently produced fourth feature, about an aspiring singer who defies a government ban prohibiting women from performing in public, would never have been passed by Iran’s repressive censors. Once “Bidad” was selected for the competition, festival organizers and the filmmaker agreed to withhold its official announcement until Beiraghi and members of his crew had safely left Iran to attend its world premiere on Wednesday night.

In Karlovy Vary, the “Bidad” team received a hero’s welcome; hosted in the Grand Hall, a large theater that serves as the festival’s central stage, the film’s premiere was a moving mid-festival highlight, which Beiraghi presented with the film’s makeup artist, Roxana Nikpour.

Set in central Tehran, “Bidad” follows Seti (Sarvin Zabetian, previously best known for appearing in Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami’s “Terrestrial Verses”), a young woman who dreams of singing on the streets and sharing her voice with others. But women’s rights in Iran have been restricted since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. Not only forced to veil but also forbidden from singing and dancing on their own in public, younger generations of Iranian women and girls have fought back against such restrictions and bans. Seti belongs to the Generation Z that’s increasingly taken to the streets in protest of gender-based discrimination and oppression.

While Seti’s chosen form of resistance is to sing, she is a product of her generation in other ways, denouncing compulsory hijab laws and wearing her headscarf as little as possible. After one of her performances goes viral, she becomes a symbol of strength for Tehran’s youth and is welcomed into its counterculture, where secret punk concerts are held in illegal venues and the risk of government raids is constant. But even as her singing finds an appreciative audience, it attracts the attention of government censors, whose efforts to silence her grow to encompass arrests and jail sentences.

Beiraghi wrote, directed, produced, and co-edited “Bidad,” also handling art direction, set design, and costumes. With a courageous heroine at its center, his film acknowledges the real-life context of the Women, Life, Freedom movement—inflamed after 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in 2022 in the custody of morality police, who’d arrested her for not wearing a hijab—while crafting a potent call to action that will resonate widely. Even beyond Iranian society, the film is a full-throated expression of defiance, courage, and solidarity with all those opposing rising tides of fascism worldwide.

Despite filming “Bidad” in secret, Beiraghi was investigated by authorities during its production, according to festival organizers; an electrifying current of feeling courses through his film, not only in Seti’s unbroken, unbowed spirit but also in the film’s slow-boiling atmosphere and its subversive exploration of an Iranian underground where songs of resistance are amplified by a receptive, irrepressible youth movement.

Already, reports have emerged that Iranian authorities announced suspended prison sentences and fines for Beiraghi, Zabetian, and fellow actress Leili Rashidi. However, the filmmaker stands by “Bidad” and believes that these restrictions will not prevent the film from finding its audience, both within and outside Iran, nor will they prevent other filmmakers from exercising their own freedom of self-expression.

The day following the emotional world premiere of “Bidad”, Beiraghi and his translator sat for an interview at Karlovy Vary’s Hotel Thermal, about the courage and conviction needed to make his latest feature. 

This interview was conducted with the assistance of a translator >>>