
FORWARD
Other movies

6 AM
Director: Mehran Modiri
Sarah is leaving Teheran for three years to study for her doctorate in Canada. Her flight is at 6 am. After an emotionally fraught final dinner with her family, she heads to an impromptu farewell party at her friend Farida’s apartment, intending to go straight to the airport afterwards. That plan implodes, however, when the morality police swoop in. Drinks are emptied, musical instruments hidden and women put on their overcoats, while Sarah is seized with terror that they will all be arrested – and she, of course, will miss her plane. Mehran Modiri, Iran’s popular satirist, who also has a chilling cameo as a police hostage negotiator, proves here that he is just as at home with a nail-biting drama.

HANAMI
Director: Denise Fernandes
The remote volcanic island of Fogo, off the coast of Cape Verde, is a difficult place to make a living. Like many other young people, Nia chooses to go, leaving her new baby Nana to be raised by her grandmother. Nana is observant and sensitive; when she develops a high fever and is sent to recover with a healer under the volcano, she immediately responds to the magical atmosphere of the island’s interior. It is as if the island itself, along with the network of women who give the film a strong feminine energy, is caring for her. A moving story about longing and belonging, culminating in the older Nana’s quandary: should she stay here forever, or follow her mother into the wider world?