Unexpected comeback after 21 years
With the Islamic Revolution, all of that is over. The fundamentalist clerics consider music to be shameful. Googoosh is sent to the infamous Evin Prison and is banned from working and placed under house arrest. She buries herself within her four walls for 21 years. Shortly after the turn of the millennium comes the unexpected opportunity to make a comeback on stage in North America.
Today the artist lives in California. From there she looks back on her life in the film. Her words (spoken by Iris Berben in the dubbed version) form a narrative thread from the Shah’s rule through the Islamic Revolution of 1979 to recent times. This reflects the life of a woman who had to fight for her self-assertion even before the time of the mullahs’ regime and who only felt completely free on stage.
This story also creates a literally colorful picture of a country that, from 1979 onwards, was dominated by black turbans and veils for a long time, at least from an external perspective. “Googoosh” shows how things grooved in Iran, even if the empire of the wasteful Shah was certainly not a flawless democracy. This is shown not only by the archive recordings, but also by the memories of the protagonist, who doesn’t sugarcoat anything, often reports rather soberly and yet brings in a lot of her personality.
Many breaks in a woman’s life
When history is viewed in retrospect, the impression often arises that events inevitably move in a certain direction. Not so with Niloufar Taghizadeh: By reconstructing the many breaks in her protagonist’s life, the German-Iranian filmmaker (“Nila’s Dream in the Garden of Eden”) makes it clear how open the development of many phases of Googoosh’s life was.
As a young person she didn’t have much to do with politics. In old age, Googoosh takes part in rallies under the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”. On the anniversary of the death of Jisa Mahsa Amini, she and other artists released the protest song “Dobareh” (German: “Again”) on the Internet. From apolitical star to protest icon: With her touching and entertaining film, Niloufar Taghizadeh shows that this path was not predetermined, but in the end it is consistent.
“Googoosh” (Germany 2024), a film by Niloufar Taghizadeh, 95 minutes
And Kino
