Iranian ‘My Favourite Cake’ Directors on Berlin Travel Ban: “We Are Sad and Tired”
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The Iranian directors of Keyke Mahboobe Man (My Favourite Cake) have pledged to push back against censorship back home after they were stopped by authorities in Tehran from traveling to Berlin in time for their world premiere Friday night.
“We’ve have decided to cross all of the restrictive red lines and accept the consequences of our choice to paint a real picture of Iranian women,” Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha said in a statement read to a press conference in Berlin on Friday. The directors were barred from leaving Iran to discuss their film about an elderly woman who wants a normal life.
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“We feel like parents who are forbidden from even looking at their newborn child. We have not been allowed today to enjoy watching the film with you, a discerning audience at this film festival. We are sad and tired, but we are not alone,” the directors added in a statement read by the film’s co-lead Lily Farhadpour, who was able to travel to Berlin along with fellow star Esmail Mehrabi.
Moghaddam and Sanaeeha said making films under Iranian censorship had become increasingly untenable. “In such a deplorable situation, we always try to depict the reality of Iranian society in our films. It’s a reality that’s often obscured by layers of censorship. We believe it is no longer possible to tell the story of an Iranian woman while respecting these red lines,” they stated.
The Farsi language film My Favourite Cake portrays 70-year-old Mahin living alone in Tehran since her husband died and her daughter left for Europe. One afternoon, tea with friends leads her to end her isolation and revive her love life. But as Mahin opens herself up to a new romance, an unexpected encounter quickly turns into an unpredictable, unforgettable evening.
“For us, this is an impossible way of acting on the part of the Iranian government,” Farhadpour told the Berlinale media when asked about being able to reach Berlin when the directors were barred from also doing so.
A cardboard portrait of the two directors instead appeared on the stage in Berlin for the presser to stand in for their presence. Ahead of their film bowing in competition in Berlin, Iranian authorities back home seized the directors’ passports to prevent any travel and threatened a court case.
That led to Berlinale organizers protesting to Iran that the directors should be released to board flights to Berlin while adding the German film festival was “shocked and dismayed” to hear the couple had been held back and their passports confiscated.
Moghaddam and Sanaeeha in their statement talked about longstanding film censorship in Iran. “For years, Iranian filmmakers have been making films under restrictive rules, obeying red lines that, when crossed, can lead to years of suspension, prohibition and complicated court cases. It’s a painful experience, which we have experienced many times,” they stated.
Their 2020 film, Ballad of a White Cow, which premiered in Berlin, is still banned in Iran and the subject of an unfinished court case. Moghaddam and Sanaeeha began working together on the screenplay for Risk of Acid Rain.
The directorial duo in their statement to the Berlinale presser insisted they needed to keep making movies about the reality of life in Iran, and not seeing their stories changed by censors.
“My Favourite Cake is a film made in praise of life. It is a story which is based on something that is the reality of everyday life of many middle-class women in Iran. It looks at the loneliness that women face in older age. It’s a story that’s not often told. It’s a story that contradicts the common image of Iranian women, about savoring the short, sweet moments in life,” Moghaddam and Sanaeeha said.
They added they hoped one day to show My Favorite Cake in Iran. Ahead of that time, the directors added “we proudly dedicate our premiere screening to the honorable and brave women of our country who have moved to the front lines of the fight for social change, who are attempting to tear down the walls of outdated and fossilized beliefs and who sacrifice their lives to achieve freedom.”
The protest of Iranian women cited by the directors was sparked by the death in police custody of the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly failing to correctly wear her hijab, or religious headscarf. Iranian authorities have violently cracked down on the protests, but the female-led movement has inspired worldwide support.
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