Iranian midwife-turned-film-maker Nahid Hasanzadeh‘s “Another Time” went on to win the Best Film by a Woman Director with a cash prize of Rs 51 lakh at the 22nd Kolkata International Film Festival.
- Nahid was born in Mianeh in 1974. She qualified as a midwife from Tehran University in 1998 and went on to study film making at Tehran’s Iranian Young Cinema Society.
- Nahid’s profession of a midwife, she had also made some short films and documentaries.
- Most of them dealt with the challenges women face in today’s society.
- Before the screening of “Another Time”, Nahid had mentioned how her professional life had also inspired her to come up with the subject of her film.
- True to her words, the first scene of her film opened with the delivery of a baby. “It was all real. She have an experience of delivering over 300 babies.
- The themes evoked have a direct link with my profession and the everyday relationships I have with my female patients and especially with those most at risk,” she smiled and said about her debut feature film.
- Choosing to work in movies wasn’t easy for Nahid.
- Though there have been other female directors working in Iran, Nahid admits that the challenges of a female film-maker still remains.
- As her first feature film, Nahid chose to narrate the complicated story of the relationship between a father and his daughter who had delivered a baby out of wedlock.
