Azita Damandan
Azita Damandan
Azita Damandan started her journey as a writer with writing short stories (which been published in one of the two major daily newspapers in IRAN). After being offered to publish her first novel by the same paper, she stopped writing it as she suddenly discovered the world of image in cinema. Azita started making short films without any academic training (self-trained). All of her short films won national awards and then later acknowledged internationally. Meanwhile she worked as first director assistant in films and tv series accompanying many creative well-known directors including Asghar Farhadi – Oscar winner Iranian director. Waiting for her feature film screenplay approval and to search for a producer in Iran she ended up working as a journalist for 7 years (including writing and chief editing a magazine for Iran Red Crescent) followed by another period of filmmaking for big organizations like Ministry of Health and UNISEF before leaving Iran. Winning her last award in Iran as the best director for another of her short films led to a documentary about her in Italian TV by Carlo Damasco. In Australia she had to start from scratch. Making eight short films (Lullaby-winner in Nurses short film festival 2009, Silence; 2013, “Untold; 2017”, Unseen, 2020, “Mourners; 2020, “Way out; 2020”- all official selected and winner of awards internationally, “Mirror; 2023”, “The Sour Grapes; 2023” and work in progress feature documentary Break a leg Charlie, Talk! she tried to find her ground. While searching for her network in a foreign land she kept her passion alive with re writing her big project “The writer’s last story” working on it since 2003, shooting documentaries, creating stories, and making commercial videos for her company Red Geranium Productions.
Feature anthology “Mourners” containing 5 short poetic stories with common thread of indirect effects of dictatorship and governing of oppressed regimes around the world on innocent people is her first feature film.
While still adjusting more historic events happening in Iran with the new revolution; “woman, life, freedom” in her semi biography feature screenplay “The writer’s last story” she has started writing her third feature script “Bahar”.
FILMOGRAPHY
Echoes
short film, 2023
Post-Production
Hannah is working hard to finish her thesis project which is a feature script, portraying a Persian writer and activist’s biography, Houshang Golshiri through bits and pieces of his stories. Through these excerpts, parts of political history of contemporary Iran ‘s been reviewed. In spite of Hannah’s supervisor’s insisting on Hannah just focusing on her project, she can’t help getting involved with the new revolution in Iran and including the significant events happening there in her thesis.
Way Out
8 min, 2021
A protest is being suppressed. A fleeing protestor encounters a government soldier who can kill her or let her go. Things get complicated when another soldier comes into the picture. Perhaps there’s more than one choice to make.
Mourners
70 minutes, 2023
The scars etched upon the souls of those fighting for freedom of speech and belief transcend the boundaries of race and nationality. In different corners of the world, individuals are often confronted with agonizing choices. It’s akin to the dilemma faced by a soldier forced to decide between harming an innocent girl or sacrificing themselves in a distant northern land. Or, in the case of a young lesbian girl, the heart-wrenching decision of whether to intervene when her lover is arrested by oppressive regime security forces in a Middle Eastern country or save herself.
The torment endured within the white-walled confines of solitary confinement is no easier when a young, tortured girl is finally offered a handful of cherries after years of deprivation. This choice is as profound as the decision to pray or not, a desperate attempt to soothe the souls of countless innocent people massacred in a single day.
Yet, amidst these grim realities, there is a glimmer of hope. It emerges when grieving mothers, who have lost their children to executions, torture, or violence in peaceful protests, extend their compassion to mothers who never had the opportunity to bury their own children. Together, they mourn over the collective graves of their sons and daughters.
Hope persists, even in the final moments of a young boy’s life. As he records a video reportage, capturing the beauty of a sunset and sharing his yearning for better days in his country, he does so just hours before he falls victim to violence during a protest.
Unseen
23 min, 2020
Mentally and emotionally sick and traumatised from drastic events in her past, Tara desperately is in search of any kind of connection with others.
Awards; Delhi Short International Film Festival, Searchlight Short Film Festival, Accolade Competition.
Mourners
17 min, 2021
Inspired by two powerful short stories by Houshang Golshiri, Silence explores the cost of freedom under oppressive regimes.
Awards; Delhi Short International Film Festival, Searchlight Short Film Festival, Accolade Competition
Untold
29 min, 2017
Iranian immigrant Ava feels spiritually lost and is struggling with her sexual identity. When she becomes a carer for Roxy – religious, lonely, and facing a life-threatening illness – things begin to shift.
Selection: Short Film Corner, Cannes Film festival; Colortape International Film Festival , Brisbane, Australia
Silence
30 min, 2013
Inspired by two powerful short stories by Houshang Golshiri, Silence explores the cost of freedom under oppressive regimes.
Awards; Delhi Short International Film Festival, Searchlight Short Film Festival, Accolade Competition
Lullaby
2009
Trapped in a lift, a young nurse is hit by claustrophobia while her only hope is the non-English speaking patient with her.
The 3rd prize for the best director. The Inaugural Nurses Short Film Festival” Sydney, Australia
A Woman, A Man, A Kid
2006
The family’s gone for the day. Dad has the place to himself … then he collapses and is unable to move or make a sound. Now that he can only listen he starts to discover what his life truly is.
The honorary Diploma for the best director of fiction movies “The first Festival of female Directors” IRAN
Neighbour
2000
An Afghani refugee enjoys his life and work in Iran in 1998. But the World Cup is on and Iran is playing USA – but he has no idea how he’s going to catch the match.
Selection of the “Kabul/Tehran 1979ff, “Filmlandschaften, Stadte unter stress und migration”
Part of the Truth
1991
An old man lives an everyday ordinary life. Even the local petty thief comes and goes on time every morning. But one day things change for him… and the world around him.
The Best director Award, “the first regional film festival of Isfahan”, IRAN
