His latest work is a hybrid film, says film producer Michael Kalb from Dinkelscherber. “Shahid,” as it is called, celebrated its cinema premiere in Augsburg at the beginning of August, after the film was first shown at the Berlinale and won two awards. The film works with documentary and fictional elements, “which means it cannot be classified into a common genre, which is what makes the project so exciting for our team,” explains Kalb.
Director and screenwriter Narges Shahid Kalhor, who comes from Tehran and lives in Munich, deals with her own story in “Shahid”. The story is told by a filmmaker who wants to have the part Shahid, which means martyr, removed from her surname. Narges Shahid Kalhor, played by Baharak Abdolifard in the film, is not only desperate because of German bureaucracy, but is also haunted by the shadows of her family’s past.
The great-grandfather died as a martyr
Her great-grandfather, a mullah who died as a martyr, accompanies Kalhor and his comrades and tries to dissuade her from her plan to remove Shahid from the name, because the spirit of the great-grandfather considers himself a hero. His martyrdom gave his descendants the name Shahid.
On the one hand, Kalhor is fighting against her own past, and thus also against the tradition of a patriarchal culture, and on the other hand she is fighting against bureaucracy. It is about “the longing to create a new future,” explains the director. “When I look at the people around me and many movements around the world, I recognize a need, especially among the younger generations, to bring about great change,” says Kalhor.
Her film is a political drama and at the same time a desperate comedy. It is about historical heroes, today’s criminals and how modern women deal with them. “Shahid” is a personal film that questions all kinds of radical ideologies – and doesn’t always take itself too seriously. The film’s levels mix and the director and actress come into conflict. While the film formally alternates between documentary, fiction, theater and musical, the protagonists fail: the director because of the bureaucracy, the actress because of the director’s demands, the great-grandfather because of his granddaughter’s wishes.
Filming took place between April and June 2023 in Augsburg, Munich, Grünwald and Wiesbaden. “Shahid” celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale on February 16, 2024. The film is currently showing at the Augsburg Liliom cinema.
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The film was shot in Augsburg, among other places, for example in a tram. Photo: Michael Kalb
Michael Kalb produced the film. Photo: Hannes Schlech
