IDFA: My Stolen Planet - Farahnaz Sharifi

Split life

Filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi, born during the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, leads a double life. Under the strict regime of the religious leaders in her country, she realizes that there is an 'I' for indoors and one for outdoors. She is 7 at the time. Since then, she has inhabited two worlds, two 'planets'. One where dancing is allowed, and one where it is not. One where she wears a hijab, and one where it is not required.

In this diary-style documentary, she reflects on a divided life. Not only she, her family and her friends play the leading roles, but also the lives of countless strangers seep into the story via home videos that she acquired in Iran. Sharifi edited the IDFA 2020 award-winning Radiograph of a Family, also based on archive material, and provided the voice-over at the time. In her own directorial debut My Stolen Planet, which has already won awards at the Berlin and Thessaloniki festivals, she uses her pleasant narrative voice to tell the story of Iranian women for whom the 'Women, Life, Freedom' uprising in 2022 was a turning point in their lives.