The penultimate pair of Crystal Globe Competition films will have their world premieres today in the Grand Hall: a Norwegian love drama Don't Call Me Mama starts at 5:00 p.m., followed by an Iranian film Bidad at 8:00 p.m.
Don’t Call Me Mama marks the feature debut of Norwegian casting director Nina Knag, and centres on Eva, a beloved schoolteacher and the mayor’s wife, who falls in love with a young refugee. “Eva is a character who both fascinates and unsettles me - she forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about longing, freedom and identity,” the filmmaker describes her heroine. But the film is far from a simple romantic drama. “What begins as a seemingly simple love story unfolds into something far more unsettling: a study of ego, exploitation and the subtle ways we justify selfishness while claiming it's love or care. As Eva’s obsession deepens, she shifts from hero to antagonist in her own life. On a broader level, the film reflects on how western societies treat those fleeing war and poverty, asking what happens when personal desire blinds us to structural injustice,” says Nina Knag.
In Bidad, Iranian director Soheil Beiraghi tells the story of another woman seeking freedom – this time, a young singer who refuses to accept the ban on women performing publicly in Iran. Director Soheil Beiraghi’s fourth film focusing on social dramas, was produced independently and offers a view of life in contemporary Iran that would be unthinkable under official censorship. The director was under investigation even during production, and for safety reasons, KVIFF announced the film’s inclusion in the competition only after the filmmakers had safely left the country.
