Films by Niloufar Taghizadeh

Germany 2024, 94 min
by Niloufar Taghizadeh

Once a pop icon, then 20 years of house arrest – and finally an unexpected comeback. The moving story of Iranian singer Googoosh makes her a voice of resistance. We accompany her on her farewell tour.The singer and actress Googoosh has been an iconic pioneer of Iranian pop culture for over 50 years. Her father, an acrobat and artist, already put her on stage at the age of three and she quickly became a child star. Googoosh’s singing inspired Iranian composers to create a new style of pop music, mixing Persian poetry with blues, jazz, Latin, rock and disco music. Her chansons became international hits, and she was a cult figure on the Iranian pop scene in the 1970s. Under the religious regime of Khomeini, Googoosh’s career then came to an abrupt halt in the 1980s when she was put under house arrest and banned from performing. This documentary tells of her eventful life and her astonishing international comeback in the 1990s. It accompanies Googoosh on her farewell tour in 2022. When the young girl Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the Iranian vice squad in September 2022, Googoosh demonstrated public solidarity with the struggle of the young generation of Iranians rebelling against the regime. She is today a symbol of hope and resistance, her life a testimony to the Iranian struggle for freedom and humanity.

2023, 109 min
by Niloufar Taghizadeh

Leyla and her six-year-old daughter Nila are inseparable. But Nila is the product of a so called “temporary marriage”, which leaves her legal status unclarified and prevents her from going to school. Leyla relentlessly fights for her daughter’s custodyLeyla and her six-year-old daughter Nila live in the holy city of Mashhad, Iran. Nila is the product of a temporary marriage, which allows a man to be married to a woman for a pre-determined and limited time, even if he is already married. Children born out of these relationships do not legally exist. Unless the father acknowledges their existence, a birth certificate cannot be issued, and without a birth certificate the child cannot attend school. However, if the birth certificate shows the name of the father, the father has the right to claim custody of the child after it turns seven. Nila’s father has never shown any interest in his daughter but he threatens to take her away from Leyla. The documentary film chronicles Leyla’s relentless efforts to clarify Nila’s legal status, to obtain permission for her to attend school and to secure her future. In a never-ending administrative struggle, Leyla is fighting not only the legal system but also a judgmental society, constant verbal aggression, threats from Nila’s father, sexual harassment from a lawyer who is supposed to help her and other setbacks. Throughout this, she tries to shield her daughter from all she is going through and make her life as positive as possible.

2022, 45 min
by Niloufar Taghizadeh

A journey through the history and art of silk production in Iran, from silkworm cocoon to finished woven fabric – a living testimony to Iran's cultural diversity.Iran's silk-weaving tradition goes back 2500 years. For a long time, looking after the silkworms, spinning the delicate threads and weaving exquisitely colourful silk fabrics by hand provided people in rural areas with a secure livelihood and was central to Persian culture. In recent decades, over half of all forests have been destroyed and with them the habitat of innumerable silkworms. Today, almost only industrially produced fabrics from Asia are imported into Iran. An artist couple from Tehran has made it their mission to revitalise traditional Iranian silk weaving and save the Persian patterns from being lost and forgotten. For more than twenty years, the couple has been committed to preserving the work of the women silk weavers. They're concerned not just with preserving an ancient craft, but also with identity and the right of Iranian women to wear traditionally colourful, patterned fabrics. They also want to protect the environment by re-establishing old mulberry trees and creating jobs and new opportunities for young people in rural areas again.