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The Locust film image, director Faeze Azizkhani

The Locust

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Canadian Premiere

Behind on her rent and facing eviction, forty-something Hanieh (Hanieh Tavassoli) has everything riding on a semi-autobiographical screenplay that she’s just sold to a friend (Pegah Ahangarani) who’s rushing it into production. However, rehearsals prove dispiriting at best. While she considers every scene sacrosanct, the cast declare the character modelled after Hanieh a “bastard.” Finding little sympathy amongst her colleagues (who include an ornery, scene-stealing rooster), Hanieh seeks counsel from her father’s ghost and kinship with the audience, as she occasionally breaks the fourth wall.

In depicting Hanieh’s dizzying, tragicomic descent into a living nightmare, Faeze Azizkhani infuses her film with anarchic energy, rapid-fire dialogue, palpable anxiety, and biting humour that recalls 90s-era indie-filmmaking-gone-awry fare like In the Soup and Living in Oblivion. That said, there are culturally specific stakes here as Azizkhani illustrates just how stacked the odds are against a female filmmaker striving for artistic expression and creative freedom.

 

Presented by

Director
Cast

Hanieh Tavassoli, Pegah Ahangarani Farahani, Ali Mosaffa, Pedram Sharifi, Ramin Sadighi, Amaneh Agharezakashi

Credits
Country of Origin

Iran/Germany

Year

2022

Language

In Farsi with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
Content Warning

Gender or Sexual Discrimination

18+
79 min
Comedy Drama Women Directors

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Credits

Executive Producer

Daryosh Hekmat

Producer

Manijeh Hekmat, Mahshid Ahangarani Farahani

Screenwriter

Faeze Azizkhani

Cinematography

Alireza Barazandeh

Editor

Hamidreza Barzegar, Majid Barzegar

Production Design

Soheil Danesh Eshraghi

Original Music

Hesam-eddin Salehbeig

Director

Faeze Azizkhani headshot, The Locust director

Faeze Azizkhani

Born in 1982 in Tehran, Faeze Azizkhani completed her courses in Abbas Kiarostami’s workshops. In 1999, she started her career as a short film director, script supervisor, and assistant director. After directing some award-winning shorts and documentaries, Azizkhani wrote and directed her debut feature film, For a Rainy Day (2015), working with Kiarostami as her advisor. The film screened at the Fajr and Silk Road International Film Festivals. Her second film, The Locust, premiered at SXSW 2022.

Filmography: For a Rainy Day (2015)