Fifi Howls from Happiness
Trailer [st en]
by Mitra Farahani
Iranian filmmaker Mitra Farahani tracks down her compatriot Bahman Mohassess, an artist who disappeared post-revolution and turns out to be living in Rome. Formidable and impious, with perpetual twinkle in his eye and a raspy laugh caused by the cigarettes he chain-smokes, the old man sits amid a sampling of his paintings and sculpture, opining on art, life and love. Two young Iranian artists arrive to commission a work and are rightfully awestruck by the man’s spirit and intellect, not to mention the various works he reveals to them, some never before seen by anyone. Farahani’s portrait of the man as he embarks upon his commission is loving, sad and wonderful.