“If I wanted to make my personal story, it couldn’t be showable. I censored a lot (for the film) to be a little bit bearable to watch,” she told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
“I couldn’t go to a totally classic narration. I have to find a language for this film to tell the story because I wanted to give the audience this chance to experience it,” she said, speaking English.<\/p>\n
Mohammadi has not been permitted to make films in Iran<\/a> since her first fiction feature, Son-Mother, in 2019, and she shot Roya\u00a0underground.<\/p>\n The film opens with a first-person perspective of what it is like to be held there – the flickering lights, the screams of other prisoners, the interrogators’ tactics, the cramped cell – before shifting to the eponymous woman, played by Melisa Sozen.<\/p>\n As if in a dream, Roya drifts through her past and present, which have taken on a distorted, unsettling quality as they flash back to her out of time.<\/p>\n Evin, where many political prisoners, intellectuals, dual nationals, and others are held, has long been a symbol of the Islamic Republic’s intolerance of dissent, and human rights organisations have condemned what they say is its systematic use of torture.<\/a><\/p>\n Mohammadi said it was difficult to return to making films after her prison experiences, but that she forced herself to do so to give voice to “the silenced”.<\/p>\n “Actually for me to be in front of the camera is one of the most painful things because, when they torture you, you sit in front of the camera,” Mohammadi said.<\/p>\n Roya not meant as personal testimony, director states<\/p>\n Mohammadi declined to give details of her own incarceration, partly because Roya\u00a0is not intended as a personal testimony but reflects a broader “shared experience”.<\/p>\nMAHNAZ MOHAMMADI and Mahan Nasirineda attend the ”Son-Mother” photo call during the 15th Zurich Film Festival at Kino Corso on September 30, 2019 in Zurich, Switzerland. (credit: Andreas Rentz\/Getty Images for ZFF)<\/p>\n