Niki-Kermani defies taboos in her film about an immigrant Iranian woman

July 7, 2012

Entertainment , Iranians in Diaspora

Solmaz Niki-Kermani

Before Golshifteh Farahani appeared topless in Madame Le Figaro and in her recent movie as an act of protest, a young Iranian-American actress/director also defied taboos in her film about a free-spirited Iranian woman. Solmaz Niki-Kermani's short film TO THE MOON narrates the life story of an Iranian girl in America named Mahtab, using unprecedented brazen dialogue and even short instances of partially nude images. The girl grew up in the post-revolutionary Iran amidst the Iran-Iraq war, where she took shelter in her father's arms when bombs fell from the sky. She leaves behind her father and moves to America to advance her life. Now in her aunt’s Los Angeles home, Mahtab constantly fights with her family, and engages in behavior not well received in her society (see trailer below).

Solmaz Niki-Kermani was born in Iran, where she discovered her love for the arts. An honor student in Mathematics, she won a national best actress award for a play taped for Iranian cable TV at the age of sixteen. Less than a year later, Solmaz moved to the US to earn a degree in Liberal Arts from Harvard. She then moved to Los Angeles, where she met producer Russell Boast, who encouraged her to write her first screenplay, TO THE MOON. The two soon co-founded Mahtab Entertainment to produce the short feature film, helmed by English director Damian Harris, son of the late actor Richard Harris.

Solmaz Niki-Kermani

In addition to Niki-Kermani (acting as adult Mahtab), cast includes Iranian-American actor Navid Negahban, popular Iranian singer Nooshafarin Abdi, British actor Jamie Harris, and child actor Yanellie Ireland (playing Mahtab as a child). TO THE MOON received good reviews during a private screening event last month, taking place in Hollywood at Raleigh Studios (images below) and is an official selection in this year's Noor International Film Festival (Event page link here).

Navid Negahban (right) with Yanellie Ireland (playing Mahtab)

Producer Russell Boast (center) and Editor Yukako Shimada(right)

Niki-Kermani says her film is not centered on breaking taboos. She claims the film explores an identity crisis many Iranian American women and their families face: "The horror of her past, the move to a new country where nothing resembles the same, leaving her sick father behind, and settling into the new home in Los Angeles are all very taxing on Mahtab’s young mind. And so as a way to cope, Mahtab runs from her problems and self medicates. By the end of the film Mahtab learns freedom doesn’t happen overnight by moving to a new country. True freedom must first come from within."

The first public screening of the film is coming to Los Angeles (event link here). This is an opportunity for anyone, feminist or otherwise, to gain insight into the troubled mind of an Iranian woman and her trials and tribulations, through the lens of another Iranian woman, a film maker.

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