Che harasi darad zolmat-he rooh!

Filmmaker Nasib Nasibi (1940–2004) was a pioneer of avant-garde cinema in Iran. His work is defined by its unique combination of poetry and cinema, particularly his use of Iranian avant-garde and modernist poems. With his brother Basir, Nasibi helped start the Cinema-ye Azad movement (1969–1979). Now considered one of the most important avant-garde films, CHE HARASI DARAD ZOLMAT-HE ROOH! tells the story of a tired and bored girl who sells her heart to the devil in order to be reborn in another world.  

For years, the film only circulated as a low-quality VHS rip anonymously uploaded to YouTube. While researching Cinema-ye Azad, film critic Hadi Alipanah discovered two copies of the film in the basement of the house of Nasibi’s wife, Shahnaz Sahebi, and only son, Niyatoos Nasibi: a complete cut of the film on VHS and a heavily damaged 35mm print. Due to the extent of the damage, the 35mm print was missing a number of scenes and the final reel has been lost. The present version of the film has now been re-assembled using the best materials of these two sources.

Born in Iran in 1986, Hadi Alipanah is a film critic, journalist, and scholar. He began his career in 2008, writing reviews for specialized short film magazines and several other journals and newspapers. For many years, he has organized short film festivals, curated short film screenings, and supervised the production of hundreds of shorts. In 2015, he founded FiDAN, Iranian short film magazine as an independent platform for introducing Iranian short films and filmmakers. His ongoing research on the history of short films in Iranian cinema led him to discover the activities of the short film collective Cinema-ye Azad, which was active in Iran between 1969 and 1979, as well as more than 300 forgotten 8mm shorts.