International Competition Award: FUCK THE POLIS by Rita Azevedo Gomes

Georges de Beauregard International Award: FRÍO METAL by Clemente Castor

Special mention of the International Competition Jury: COBRE by Nicolás Pereda

French Competition Award: BONNE JOURNÉE by Pauline Bastard

Georges de Beauregard National Award: HORS-CHAMP, LES OMBRES by Anna Dubosc, Gustavo de Mattos Jahn

Cnap (National Centre for Visual Arts) Award: DES MILLÉNAIRES D’ABSENCE by Philippe Rouy

Special mention of the Cnap (National Centre for Visual Arts) Jury: L’AMOUR SUR LE CHEMIN DES RONCETTES by Sophie Roger

First Film Award: FANTAISIE by Isabel Pagliai

Special mention of the First Film Competition Jury: LOS CRUCES by Julián Galay

Special mention of the First Film Competition Jury: SI NOUS HABITONS UN ÉCLAIR by Louise Chevillotte

Claudia Cardinale Foundation Award: FERNLICHT by Johanna Schorn Kalinsky

Cine+ Distribution support Award in partnership with GNCR: MORTE E VIDA MADALENA by Guto Parente

Flash Competition Award: گل‌های شب ِدریا by Maryam Tafakory

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: A PRELUDE by Wendelien van Oldenborgh

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: CONTROL ANATOMY by Mahmoud Alhaj

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: LENGUA MUERTA by José Jiménez

Alice Guy Award: ABORTION PARTY by Julia Mellen

Renaud Victor Award: BULAKNA by Leonor Noivo

Special mention of the Renaud Victor Jury: SI NOUS HABITONS UN ÉCLAIR by Louise Chevillotte

High School Award: NEXT LIFE by Tenzin Phuntsog

Special mention of the High School Jury: MIRACULOUS ACCIDENT by Assaf Gruber

The Second Chance School Award: NEXT LIFE by Tenzin Phuntsog

Special mention of the Second Chance School Jury: JACOB’S HOUSE by Lucas Kane

Audience Award: LA JUVENTUD ES UNA ISLA by Louise Ernandez

International Competition Award: FUCK THE POLIS by Rita Azevedo Gomes

Georges de Beauregard International Award: FRÍO METAL by Clemente Castor

Special mention of the International Competition Jury: COBRE by Nicolás Pereda

French Competition Award: BONNE JOURNÉE by Pauline Bastard

Georges de Beauregard National Award: HORS-CHAMP, LES OMBRES by Anna Dubosc, Gustavo de Mattos Jahn

Cnap (National Centre for Visual Arts) Award: DES MILLÉNAIRES D’ABSENCE by Philippe Rouy

Special mention of the Cnap (National Centre for Visual Arts) Jury: L’AMOUR SUR LE CHEMIN DES RONCETTES by Sophie Roger

First Film Award: FANTAISIE by Isabel Pagliai

Special mention of the First Film Competition Jury: LOS CRUCES by Julián Galay

Special mention of the First Film Competition Jury: SI NOUS HABITONS UN ÉCLAIR by Louise Chevillotte

Claudia Cardinale Foundation Award: FERNLICHT by Johanna Schorn Kalinsky

Cine+ Distribution support Award in partnership with GNCR: MORTE E VIDA MADALENA by Guto Parente

Flash Competition Award: گل‌های شب ِدریا by Maryam Tafakory

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: A PRELUDE by Wendelien van Oldenborgh

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: CONTROL ANATOMY by Mahmoud Alhaj

Special mention of the Flash Competition Jury: LENGUA MUERTA by José Jiménez

Alice Guy Award: ABORTION PARTY by Julia Mellen

Renaud Victor Award: BULAKNA by Leonor Noivo

Special mention of the Renaud Victor Jury: SI NOUS HABITONS UN ÉCLAIR by Louise Chevillotte

High School Award: NEXT LIFE by Tenzin Phuntsog

Special mention of the High School Jury: MIRACULOUS ACCIDENT by Assaf Gruber

The Second Chance School Award: NEXT LIFE by Tenzin Phuntsog

Special mention of the Second Chance School Jury: JACOB’S HOUSE by Lucas Kane

Audience Award: LA JUVENTUD ES UNA ISLA by Louise Ernandez

A strong wind shakes the tree branches. A man’s hands turn the pages of a book; a woman’s hands wash a plate, make a bed, scrub a bathtub; the arms of a figure swallowed by waves reach out for help. The defiant gaze of a famous actress appears. Drawing on post-revolution Iranian films and a personal archive of floral imagery, Maryam Tafakory weaves a vengeful fable, linking psychiatry to the policing of female desire, in which the heroine, Daria, is condemned to disappearance for having written a lesbian love story. She exhumes scenes of sedated wives taking medication, sometimes hiding it from their violent husbands, and intertwines these with exquisite floral illuminations from ancient pharmacopoeias and macro shots of carnivorous plants. Remedy, drug, poison—the narrative unfolds various uses of flowers through dark poetic prescriptions: “medicine to induce forgetting”, “plant to ease the pain of loving the one you mustn’t”, “that which can both heal and kill”… The whispered echoes of these phrases accompany the film’s enigmatic narrative (voiced by the filmmaker herself), in which the tragedy gradually merges with that of the heroine in the novel, named “Blue”. Blue shrouds the film in her cryptic presence, bathing it in bluish light, while layered images of blossoming bouquets bloom across the screen. Maryam Tafakory imagines a secret language of flowers, casting them as a kind of pharmakon, and makes Daria’s flowers a possible antidote to male oppression—if only for the duration of this tale of survival and resistance that runs counter to dominant representations. The final line, spoken by a bedridden woman, becomes a call for unity, a longing for liberation through disappearance: “I wish I were Daria (the sea, in Farsi)”.

Louise Martin Papasian

Technical sheet

  • Subtitles:
    Screenings on 10.07 and 11.07 subtitled in French/English; screening on 13.07 subtitled in English only.
  • Script:
    Maryam Tafakory
  • Editing:
    Maryam Tafakory
  • Sound:
    Stefan Smith
  • Production:
    Maryam Tafakory
  • Contact:
    Square Eyes

Filmography

  • Maryam Tafakory

    • Fragments of a Letter, 2014
    • I Was Five, 2014
    • Taklif, 2014
    • Poem & Stone, 2015
    • Absent Wound, 2016
    • I Have Sinned a Rapturous Sin, 2017
    • Irani Bag, 2020
    • Nazarbazi, 2022
    • Mast-del, 2023
    • Razeh-del, 2024