[Reader-list] Screening of 'The Queen and I' on 29th June at Prithvi House, Bombay

[Chandni Parekh]

From: Vikalp at Prithvi <vikalp.prithvi at gmail.com>



  ****

**
*

VIKALP at PRITHVI
*

**

*Monday, 29th June, 2009*

**

*7 pm & 9:30 pm*






When Nahid Persson Sarvestani, an Iranian exile, set out to make a
documentary about Farrah, the wife of the Shah of Iran, she expected to
encounter her opposite. As a child, Persson Sarvestani had lived in dire
poverty, watching Farrah’s wedding as if it were a fairy tale. As a
teenager, she joined the Communist faction of Khomeini’s revolution that
deposed the Shah, sending him and his family volleying from country to
country. When Khomeini betrayed his promise for democracy, imposing more
violent measures than the Shah had, Persson Sarvestani was also forced to
flee.



Thirty years later, she needs key questions answered and goes directly to
the source. Queen Farrah welcomes her as a fellow refugee from their beloved
homeland, granting unprecedented access. Over the next year and a half,
Persson Sarvestani enters the queen’s world, planning to challenge the
Shah’s ideology; instead, she must rethink her own.



When Persson Sarvestani’s prior opposition to the Shah surfaces, the queen
shuts down filming. Yet, in the struggle to understand each other’s
experiences, an unlikely friendship has blossomed. Confronting Farrah about
the Shah’s repression has become not only a political conflict but a
personal one, and Persson Sarvestani’s objectivity is shaken.



Both are women living in exile.



Over time, the two confront each other about their past, question their
former beliefs, and share their grievances. Their relationship grows as they
realize they have much in common as two strong women who have risen above
hardships to continue evolving towards a positive future.



In this gripping, poignant consideration of subjectivity as truth, we learn
that people write history. And can also heal it. *The Queen and I*, made by
a former revolutionary who helped to overthrow the monarchy in Iran’s 1979
revolution, couldn’t be more relevant as we reach across our own political
aisles.



Filmmaker Nahid Persson Sarvestani began a formalized study of television
and film production in Sweden, and in 2003 attended Dramatiska Institutet.
She has made several films in Iran under challenging conditions, among them
*Prostitution Behind the Veil*, for which the Iranian authorities detained
her for more than three months.

**



* *

*The Queen and I*

Swedish/ 2008/ 90 mins

* *

*Director: *Nahid Persson Sarvestani

*Editor: *Zinat S. Lloyd

*Music: *Mirage

*Cinematographer: *Nicklas Karpaty

*Sound: *Rostm Persson, William Kaplan, Arvid Lind

*Publicist: *Sara Vahabi

**

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLQ9DbhnIRQ

* *

* *

 * No Entry Fee. Limited Seating.

* Prithvi House, Opposite Prithvi Theatre, Janki Kutir, Juhu, Mumbai.

* The registration desk will be open between 6 pm to 6:45 pm and 8:30 to
9:15 pm.

* For more information, write to us at vikalp.prithvi at gmail.com

* For screening queries contact Anand Patwardhan 9819882244 Lynne Henry
9820896425