“The drama Son-Mother concerns the absurd situation of a contemporary Iranian family imprisoned in a trap of social conventions, stereotypes, archaic rules and the threat of slander that springs from them. The story explores deeply engrained negative prejudices against single women and their voices in a male society. It highlights the negative impact of the patriarchy and the repression of women’s rights on a boy, a future man, who inadvertently reproduces the system of social repression,” said the jury, comprising the director of the Czech branch of Amnesty International Linda Sokačová, actress Hana Vagnerová and documentary maker Klára Tasovská.
The director of the winning film, Mahnaz Mohammadi, is not just a filmmaker but also a prominent women’s rights activist in Iran. The uniqueness and importance of the subject matter of her film is borne out by the fact that the film has still not received a distribution permit in Iran. “I can’t even describe the joy this prize gives us,” was the immediate response to the award of the film’s producer, Gabriela Daniels. “Above all else because of the director, Mahnaz Mohammadi, who has been locked up five times. This film hasn’t been approved for distribution in Iran, so nobody there has seen it yet.”