Portrait of a Lady Faraway

Colour, 35 mm
Iran, 2005, 98 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition

Synopsis

Aging architect Ahmad Salavati finds a message on his answering machine from an unknown woman who claims to have dialled his number at random. She also claims that she’s planning on committing suicide. But when he arrives at the given address, Ahmad finds the apartment empty. Instead, he chances to meet the caller’s girlfriend who is understandably very upset. Together they drive round the hospitals, but there is no trace of the suicide. Ahmad and the young woman — who, like her girlfriend, is an actress — continue to traverse the city through the night. In the process, several seemingly insignificant events and encounters take place which, in his weary mind, gradually create a disquieting image of a world racked by alienation and doubt. The taciturn young woman at his side becomes a kind of guide, taking him surprisingly deep into his own past. This intimate psychological debut touches on the themes of memory and loneliness, and is reminiscent of the work of Andrei Tarkovsky for its mysterious, disturbing atmosphere.

About the director

Ali Mosaffa (b. 1966, Teheran) started out as an actor at the beginning of the 1990s, earning praise for his work in a loose (unauthorized) adaptation of J. D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey entitled Pari (1994, dir. Dariush Mehrjui); for this performance he took Best Supporting Actor at the 13th Fajr International Film Festival). In 1991 he began making short films. Filmography: the short video films Incubus (1991), Rush (1993), The Deceit of Poesy (1996) and The Neighbour (1999; Best Experimental Film at the Iranian short film fest). Portrait of a Lady Faraway is Mosaffa’s writerdirector feature debut.