Zar Amir Ebrahimi seduced the jury chaired by Vincent Lindon and won the interpretation prize at Cannes this year. His performance in Nights of Mashhad of Ali Abbasi is breathtaking. The Iranian actress who participated in particular in Shirin and animated film Tehran Tabooplays a journalist determined to find a murderer of prostitutes.
“I cannot be one hundred percent happy because I am thinking of the Iranian people who are suffering, she declared at the Cannes press conference following the presentation of her prize. To be there tonight with this award is a miracle, like being able to make this film. The adaptation of an authentic news story transposed to Jordan in order to avoid the wrath of Iranian censorship.
A message for Iranian women
“My research to prepare the film showed me how difficult it is to practice the profession of journalist when you are an Iranian woman,” she says. His character, brave to discover the truth in an often indifferent and sometimes downright hostile environment, resembles Zar Amir Ebrahimi in his resilience. “Being there is also a message for Iranian women,” she says. In Iran, people wanted to erase me from the cinema, push me to suicide, this award is a good way to respond to them. »
The actress, who lives in France, has embraced her new existence far from her country. “You have to consider exile as an opportunity,” she says. Along with his reward for Nights of Mashhad who now leads her in the footsteps of her colleague and friend Golshifteh Farahani.