26/11/2025 - The Iranian filmmaker tells us about how he used a camera to document the coming of age of his nieces in Tehran

The new film by Iranian director Massoud Bakhshi has been nearly two decades in the making, as he used a camera to document the coming of age of his nieces, Mahya and Zahra, in Tehran. All My Sisters [+see also:
film review
interview: Massoud Bakhshi
film profile] speaks to the clash between loyalty and compassion, within the framework of the oppression of women in Iran from an early age. Following the documentary’s world premiere in IDFA’s International Competition, Cineuropa caught up with the director to unpack the process of documenting family members up close.

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Cineuropa: What kind(s) of camera(s) did you use over the years, and what was the set-up like? Some shots are static, others not so much. How did you adapt to the pace of your nieces growing up?
Massoud Bakhshi: I worked with two Sony cameras: first, with an XDCAM CineAlta, and then with an FX30 Cinema Line. But I (and also the protagonists) used to film with mobiles, GoPros and smaller HD cameras as well. Of course, not many of these rushes were used in the final cut. For most of the shooting, the camera is handheld, even though you don’t feel or see it. My main rule was to be as close as possible to them. As for the settings, it was different each time, according to the interior light during the day or night.

They must have been pretty much used to your camera from early on, but when did you have a conversation with Mahya and Zahra about these recordings becoming a film that other people around the world would see?
I started to talk about this [project] as soon as they started school. Nevertheless, I think the whole concept of the “film” became more serious to them when they started secondary school. The age of adolescence is quite strange and complex, as we start to think and ask about the “self”, and I’m sure it was at that time that they took these shooting sessions seriously, asking themselves what this film would look like. I remember they were asking me when they could see the result, and my answer was that it would happen by the end of shooting.

What were some of the ways in which this shooting process surprised you? Not only in terms of the duration of it, but also given that the movie captures the trajectory of Iran through news and radio programmes in the background. These are times you lived through as an adult, but what was it like revisiting those eras with your nieces, when you were showing them the film?
This is basically a film about "growth" – the growth of its main characters, three sisters, but also the growth of a society, Iranian society. That’s why it’s also a kind of chronology of my country during the last two decades, even though I kept my camera mainly inside the home, close to the characters. It’s through their eyes and ears that we can discover the outside world.

What we see is an act of viewing; did you show them an edited, final version of the film we're also seeing within the movie?
Yes, they are viewing the main part of the edit – which we as the viewers see – but we also see their reactions and comments. It’s the solution I found to enable the film’s structure to be ethical towards its characters, letting them express what they think of their image in this edit.

How did you know when to end the film?
The first script involved filming them for seven years until they started school. But once I’d reached that point, I decided to continue the shoot. It was then that I decided to record the whole public-school years, up until the university entrance exam – which is an extremely difficult and challenging period for young people and their families – and, obviously, the driving test, which is the end of adolescence, according to psychologists.