In the Name of Scheherazade oder der erste Biergarten in Teheran

Testimonies: “Just let him know you have a new idea, something about your homeland, something political,” is the advice offered by a friend to filmmaker Narges Kalhor, who is trying to complete her graduation film. Kalhor's despair about the project is due to the input of the white male commissioning editor, whose comments in the voiceover keep interrupting the film. As he puts it, he would like the film to get closer to the audience’s usual “viewing habits”, demanding that “stories from the homeland” be included here and there, as well as images of refugees or “something not so complicated”. The resulting film is many films in one, with viewers becoming the witnesses of the editorial process along the way. Narrating, persuading and convincing are central motifs here. With a joyful sense of anarchy and plenty of humor, Kalhor combines a range of different stories to create a mockumentary, which in the end doesn’t take the editor’s comments so very seriously after all: there is space for the story of a queer Syrian asylum-seeker, as well as for that of a female brewer from Iran, for private video material and studio footage, all framed by a shadow play that evokes the famous tale of Scheherazade. (Can Sungu)