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ReFocus: The International Directors Series

ReFocus: The Films of Sohrab Shahid-SalessExile, Displacement and the Stateless Moving Image

Edited by Azadeh Fatehrad

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£105.00

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About this book

Examines the work of Iranian-German filmmaker, Sohrab Shadid-Saless, focusing on the themes of displacement and exile in his films
  • Reflects on Sohrab Shahid-Saless' work and its implications for issues of creativity in diasporic conditions
  • Provides a comprehensive account of Shahid-Saless’ work including his films and production methods, as well as personal letters that offer an insight into his process and thoughts
  • Includes close readings of films including A Simple Event (1073), Still Life (1974), Utopia (1983), Coming of Age (1974) and Far From Home (1975)

An Iranian immigrant struggling to integrate into 1970s German society, the filmmaker Sohrab Shahid Saless (1944–98) has become a neglected figure in discussions of diaspora cinema. In this – the first English-language book to reflect on his work and its implications for creativity in the diasporic conditions of urban displacement – a range of international scholars provide a comprehensive account of Shahid Saless’s films and production methods.

Outlining his affinity with celebrated directors like Chantal Akerman and Abbas Kiarostami, as well as visual artists like Romuald Karmakar, the contributors firmly position Shahid Saless as a filmmaker who speaks forcefully to the traumas of displacement and migration.

Contributors
  • >Hamid Naficy, Northwestern University
  • Christopher Gow, Independent
  • Matthias Wittmann, University of Basel
  • Majid Eslami, Independent
  • Michelle Langford, UNSW, Sydney
  • Azadeh Fatehrad, Kingston University
  • Michael Mazière, University of Westminster
  • Gareth Evans, Whitechapel Gallery
  • Dario Marchiori, Université Lyon 2
  • Pierre d'Alancaisez, Independent
  • Bert Schmidt, Independent
  • Behrang Samsami, Independent
  • Omid Abdollahi, Independent

Reviews

A mystic poet of the hidden sights of our souls, Sohrab Shahid Saless was the filmmakers’ filmmaker.　　He achieved an almost cultic character in his homeland and his two Iranian films formed the DNA of Iranian New Wave before the Iranian Revolution of 1977-9 catapulted him into Europe and then the US where he died lonely and forlorn.　　Azadeh Fatehrad has given the world of cinema a priceless gift by editing a much overdue volume celebrating both phases of Shahid Saless’s Iranian and foreign filmmaking careers: in one he mapped the solitude of our souls, and in the other the exilic permanence of our very existence.
Table of contents

Foreword by Vahid Alaghband

Introduction by Azadeh Fatehrad

Part I: The Life and Work of Sohrab Shahid Saless

Chapter 1: Slow, Closed, Recessive, Formalist and Dark – the Cinema of Sohrab Shahid Saless, by Hamid Naficy

Chapter 2: Point-of-View, Symbolism and Music in Sohrab Shahid Saless’ Utopia, by Christopher Gow

Chapter 3: The Blind Owls of Modernity. Of protocols, mirrors and grimaces in Sohrab Shahid Saless’ films, by Matthias Wittmann

Chapter 4: ‘A Simple Event’ from a Historical Perspective: What Do We Talk About When We Talk About Realism?, by Majid Eslami 　

Part II: Creative Exiles

Chapter 5: Sohrab Shahid Saless and the Political Economy of the New German Cinema, by Michelle Langford

Chapter 6: The Aesthetic of Diaspora in Moving Image Practice, by Azadeh Fatehrad

Part III: The Stateless Moving Image

Chapter 7: Curating the Nomadic – Film and Video at Ambika P3, by Michael Mazière

Chapter 8: A Certain Tenderness, by Gareth Evans

Chapter 9: Statelessness as Practice: Sohrab Shahid Saless and the work of exile, by Pierre d'Alancaisez

Chapter 10: Screening Sohrab Shahid Saless’ Work: Contemporary Perspectives, by Dario Marchiori

Interview by Behrang Samsami with Bert Schmidt

Filmography

Film about Shahid Saless: Sohrab, A Journey (2016) produced by Omid Abdollahi

Index

About the author

Azadeh Fatehrad

Azadeh Fatehrad is a Researcher at the Visual and Material Culture Research Centre, Kingston University. Fatehrad has conducted diverse projects across Europe and the Middle East, including at the International Institute of Social History (IISH), Amsterdam and AFDI Archiv für Forschung und Dokumentation Iran Berlin eV,Berlin. She is co-founder of ‘Herstoriographies: The Feminist Media Archive Research Network’ in London and she is on the editorial board of the peer-reviewed Journal for Artistic Research (JAR).

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