My Father

When Iranian actress and director Pegah Ahangarani (1984) was growing up, she thought every soldier she saw on television might have been her father. During her earliest years he was fighting at the front, and a portrait of Khomeini hung in a prominent place in the house. But one day the image of the Ayatollah disappeared without explanation and another photo took its place.

In this personal essay, Ahangarani (I Am Trying to Remember) talks about how the Iranian Revolution, and the turbulent times that ensued, affected her and her family. Illustrated with archive footage, news excerpts and family photos, she narrates her personal story, first from the point of view of a girl living in a world of fairy-tale heroes, then gradually shifting to the perspective of an adult who could interpret the complex events.

With poetic tenderness, she explains how much the lives of generations of her family members and friends have been affected by the past 50 years of Iranian history.