‘Ma Dar Behesht (Paradise) - Sina Ataeian Dena’

(IR/DE, 2015, 98’, OV, st. EN)

Hanieh, a 24-year-old Tehran middle class woman, wakes up early every morning and travels a long way to teach at a primary school in an unruly and poor suburb. Sick of her life, Hanieh is trying to get transferred to a school in the city, but the paperwork appears to be stuck somewhere in the daunting Iranian administration. When, one day, she arrives at the school to find out that two female students have disappeared and are feared to have been kidnapped, her problems suddenly seem petty.

Sina Ataeian Dena

 Born in 1983 in Iran , Sina Ateian Dena first studies physics before dedicating himself to the cinema at the Sooreh University of Teheran. Especially Music (2009) is his first animation film. After the documentary Arghaj (2012), Sina Ateain Dena directs Ma Da Behesht (Paradise) in 2015, screened at the last Locarno Film Festival: the feature film has been made without official authorization by the government and it is the first episode of a trilogy about the violence directed in Teheran.