Solidarity Screening with the Iranian people
Solidarity Screening with the Iranian people
31 March 2026
6:30pm – dinner (vegan)
7:30pm – screening
WET, Hillevliet 90, 3rd floor, 3074 KD Rotterdam
Suggested donations: €5/10/15/20
All proceeds go to human rights and grassroots organisations in Iran.
A screening of three films by Iranian filmmakers and artists: Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour & Ryan Ferko; Meshkat Talebi & Mana Tashakorinia; and Bani Khoshnoudi. This solidarity screening is a moment of learning, reflecting and gathering material support for the communities affected by the ongoing war in Iran. We stand in solidarity with the Iranian people and condemn the USA/Israeli unlawful invasion, and prior to that the killings of protestors by the Iranian regime.
We will collect donations and the proceeds from the event will be split between HENGAW (https://hengaw.net/en) an organisation reporting and documenting human rights violations in Iran (especially against its Kurdish population) and a grassroots fundraiser organised by a group of Iranian artists living in the Netherlands and Germany, who came together in response to the beginning of the war. The latter group acts through personal, trusted connections in Iran and has been supporting an organisation helping political prisoners and an orphanage in Tehran; their next goal is to buy medical supplies. The group wishes to stay anonymous for safety reasons.
Programme:
Chooka
Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour & Ryan Ferko
21 min, Iran & Canada, 2018
In 1973, the Shah of Iran commissioned the construction of a paper factory in the northern province of Gilan. Foreign engineers from Canada and the United States were brought to develop and run the facility, bringing with them their families as well as a species of pine tree previously unknown to the region. Their stay, however, came to a sudden halt in 1979, with the Iranian revolution forcing them to flee the site overnight. Chooka unfolds between the site of this factory and a rural family house located in a nearby village. The same family hosted the production of a couple of Bahram Beyzaie’s films in the 1970 and 1980s. The filmmakers return to this landscape 40 years later to meet the family again. Mediated through screens and photography, Chooka weaves original material with elements of archival documentary footage and fragments of Beyzaie’s cinema to explore the entangled relationship between a stranger and a host, a factory and a village, a film crew and a family, foreign trees and a landscape.
Majlis
Meshkat Talebi and Mana Tashakorinia
1 min, Iran & Netherland, 2025
Husayn ibn Ali was the third Imam in Shi’ite Islam. He refused on moral grounds to pledge allegiance to caliph Yazid ibn Mu’awiya and was brutally murdered together with his family. His death became a symbol for protest against oppression and has been commemorated in the Shi’ite community through mourning rituals and re-enactments. Carried into the month of Muharram, it coincided and inspired many protest movements, from the Green Movement in 2009-10 to the Zhina uprising in 2022. Majlis is a fluid movement between Meshkat Talebi’s childhood archives of the grieving rituals and the resonances of various uprisings with this rebellious mourning practice in Iran, spanning the time between 2004 and 2024.
The Silent Majority Speaks
Bani Khoshnoudi
94 min, 2010-14
In June 2009, Iran’s presidential election unleashed large-scale civil uprisings in Tehran and beyond. Large scale street demonstrations in support of reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi (represented by the colour green) took place in the lead up to the elections. After the fraudulent elections’ results people took to the streets again and were brutally crushed. Using the Green Movement revolt in Iran as a launching pad and as a central focus, The Silent Majority Speaks explores acts of resistance and moments of revolutionary consciousness in Iran’s modern history. Ideas of collectivity, authority, patriarchy, memory and repetition are reflected upon in this essay film, mixing cellphone footage of street protests with archival materials. The film was first made under the moniker The Silent Collective; only later did Bani Khoshnoudi came out as the director.
Content note: The films contain images of death, torture and state violence.
All films will be screened with English subtitles.
WET is supported by its members, Mondriaan Fonds, Gemeente Rotterdam, and Stichting Volkskracht.
Access: WET is located on the 3rd floor and unfortunately is not wheelchair accessible. The ground floor of the building has step free access via a ramp. There is an elevator to the second floor and a flight of steps to the third floor. Gender neutral and wheelchair accessible toilets are available. Please get in touch if you have any questions about access.