North American Premiere
Under Iranian law, from elementary school, boys and girls attend school separately. But in kindergarten and preschool there is no gender division. Numb follows a handful of boys and girls in their last year of pre-school as they learn to navigate gender whilst imitating the world of adults through make-believe and childhood games. Roham, the protagonist, is a six-year-old boy whose innocent love for classmate Rana and his curiosity about her shy and reluctant personality unravel dark and horrifying secrets of her life. Amir Toodehroosta beautifully depicts the innocence that exists in childhood, even in a society where religion and pain cast a constant shadow. The filmmaker does not force these issues but allows them to surface through the gaze of this six-year-old boy who tries to make sense of the world and his place in it. The film’s stunning cinematography transports us directly into the world of childhood, as we see things through their lens not only conceptually but technically.
Ayhan Shaygan, Shabnam Dadkhah, Nora Hanifeh Zadeh, Rayan Razmi
Iran
2022
Focus
In Farsi with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Sina Sharbafi
Producer
Amir Toodehroosta
Screenwriter
Amir Toodehroosta
Cinematography
Soroush Alizadeh
Editor
Maysam Samadi Bahrami
Original Music
Fardin Khalatbari
Director
Amir Toodehroosta
Amir Toodehroosta, an Iranian independent artist and filmmaker, was born in 1982 in Iran. He studied filmmaking at IYCS and Theater at Sooreh University. He has made two documentaries and seventeen short films which have been selected and awarded in many festivals. His first feature film Paat was selected for various international festivals including Warsaw and Tokyo. Numb is his second feature.
Filmography: Paat (2013)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Dreamed Adventure
In Valeska Grisebach’s subtle, gripping crime drama, archaeologist Vesna (Yana Redeva) unearths more than she bargained for when she returns to the southern Bulgarian town of her youth, running afoul of local gangsters in the process.
Nina Roza
Mihail, a contemporary art expert, has been living in Montreal since he left Bulgaria with his daughter almost thirty years ago. When he is commissioned to authenticate the work of an 8-year-old painting prodigy, he returns to Bulgaria for the first time.
A Long Winter
Based on a short story by Colm Toibin and set in the Rockies in the 1950s, the latest from All of Us Strangers director Andrew Haigh is a piercing emotional drama about a family facing hardships over a few months in a cabin far above town.
Yugo Goes to America
In Yugo Goes to America, millennials from Belgrade drive a Yugo — Yugoslavia’s notoriously unreliable vehicle — from New York to Los Angeles. Their freewheeling road trip traces the car’s volatile history alongside the breakup of Yugoslavia itself.
Yellow Letters
Derya and Aziz, a theatre couple based in Ankara, are celebrating the premiere of their latest play when they find themselves targeted by state investigations. Their lives change practically overnight, they find their political convictions put to the test.
Image: © EllaKnorz ifProductions Alamode Film