Raving Iran

Raving Iran (2016)

Anoosh and Arash are at the center of Tehran’s underground techno scene. Tired of hiding from the police and their stagnating career, they organize one last manic techno rave under dangerous circumstances in the desert. Back in Tehran they try their luck selling their illegally printed music album without permission. When Anoosh is arrested, there seems to be no hope left. But then they receive a phone call from the biggest techno festival in the world. Once landed in Switzerland, the haze of the instant euphoria evaporates quickly when the seriousness of the situation starts to dawn on them.

Date of release
2016-08-07
TMDB
6.6 / 10 (17)
Runtime
1h 24m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Susanne Regina Meures

Casting

Interesting facts

Raving Iran is a 2016 Swiss film written and directed by Susanne Regina Meures. The film follows Iranian DJs Anoosh Rakizade and Arash Shadram as they try to organise raves and make electronic music while attempting to evade the controls of the Iranian government.

Production

Meures worked for magazines like Dazed & Confused and heard about the underground music scene in Iran. She started trying to make contacts with people in Iran through Facebook, and then travelled to Tehran to meet people in person. She found it difficult to persuade people to appear in her film, but after promising Anoosh and Arash that their faces would not be shown in the film, they agreed to participate.

Hyperallergic.com noted that "The film captures the tense atmosphere the DJs face alongside their camaraderie and unwavering desire to succeed." Meures, the film's director also told the interviewer that filming in Iran had been difficult, “The DJs regularly cancelled shoots because they feared it would be too dangerous. The whole experience wasn’t smooth for any of us.”

When the DJs were invited to London for the film's premiere at the Village Underground on April 27, 2017, the UK government denied Arash a visa, stating that the authorities were 'not satisfied that you [Anoosh] are a genuine visitor and will leave the UK at the end of your visit.'

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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