1001 FRAMES

In the organizer's words:

Mehrnoush Alia, Iran, USA 2025, 87 Min., Farsi with English subtitles

Followed by a talk with the director Mehrnoush Alia moderated by Afsun Moshiri

Tickets are available now available in our website. Reserve soon, seating is limited. 
The doors open one hour before the screenings.

SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA
Lindowerstr. 20/22
Haus C
13347 Berlin

Directions
U6 S + U Wedding
S41, S42
Bus: 120, 147, N6, N20

One by one, a series of young women take a seat in the middle of a sparsely furnished room. They have come to audition for the part of Scheherazade in 1001 Nights, the legendary storyteller who saved her life with her ability to tell a tale. The person auditioning them, who we learn is a well-known director, asks the women to perform different roles. However, his questions and requests quickly become more probing; he plays on the women’s ambitions to be cast as a way to exert his power over them.

Ingeniously, the director remains unseen throughout, existing only as an offscreen voice, thus becoming a stand-in for any man, everyman. The camera too, which he wields to trace the contours of the women’s bodies unbeknownst to them, becomes a further extension of his exploitative gaze.

1001 Frames is not only a deeply unnerving portrait of the kind of abuses which catalysed the Me Too movement in the film industry but of the violent, male-dominated systems that all women, whether in Iran or elsewhere, find themselves trapped within. Masterfully crafted using limited means, Mehrnoush Alia demonstrates that the true power of film lies in vivid storytelling: this is a story that most women know all too well and that everyone needs to hear. (BH)