Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Berlin 2023 (Forum)

How can the horror of political imprisonment and torture be told? The Iranian filmmaker and architect Mehran Tamadon, who has lived in France since his youth and returns to his homeland time and again for projects, has found an impressive way. He places his characters Homa Kalhori, Taghi Rahmani and Mazyar Ebrahimi in a space which recreates their former prisons - „where God is not“, as one of the jailors said.  And as such, becomes a rogue scenario that triggers in them memories of past suffering, humiliation and torture. An original cinematic device allowing for a performative reenactment to sharing their harrowing experiences, which becomes a denunciation of a reality that is still Iran’s nowadays.