Niloofar

Niloofar (2008)

Niloofar is a twelve-year-old girl whose dream is to read and write, but she lives in a village where education is only for boys. Her mother, a well-known midwife, insists that Niloofar become her apprentice. While assisting her mother during a delivery, Niloofar meets a feminist woman who undertakes to teach her in secret. Unfortunately, in exchange of a palm tree field, Niloofar's father promises her in marriage to an older man once she becomes a woman. Horrified by this notion, Niloofar does everything in her power to postpone her first periods. Eventually, the inevitable occurs. HOwever, Niloofar, who is determined to keep her freedom as long as possible, arranges to conceal the fact from her family for another two years until the truth can no longer be hidden. Then, rather than live in a marriage without love, Niloofar runs away with her friend. Shocked, her family considers itself dishonored and sends her step-brother to track her down

Date of release
2008-11-09
TMDB
4.0 / 10 (1)
Runtime
1h 20m
Genres
Drama, Drama
Director
Sabine El Gemayel

Casting

Interesting facts

Niloofar is an Iranian drama film written and directed by Lebanese filmmaker Sabine El Gemayel. It is an international co-production between the French company Pyramide Films and companies in Lebanon and Iran. The film was released in 2008 and screened at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles that year.

Production

Writer and director Sabine El Gemayel based the script's story on a girl she met in Lebanon who was facing the prospect of an arranged marriage. Gemayel commented, however, that the issues raised in the film are not specific to one culture, saying, "It’s a humanist film that’s critical of a specific tradition, not a culture ... I did not want to make a film that was anti-Arab.”

Niloofar was filmed in Iran in 2007 over a 53-day shoot.

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