PARK CITY, United States, Jan 23, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - Movies by and about

Iranian women took center stage at the Sundance film festival this weekend,
as diaspora filmmakers reflected on female-led protests and the deadly
challenges of censorship and resistance in their ancestral home.

"Joonam," a documentary about a three-generation family of Iranian women now
living in Vermont, and "The Persian Version," a colorful but candid dramedy
which hops between Iran and New York over several decades, received world
premieres on Saturday.

"Shayda," a drama directed by Noora Niasari about a Persian woman who flees
her abusive husband in Australia, debuted earlier at the high-profile
independent film festival in Utah.

Their inclusion in Sundance's line-up follows four months of mass
demonstrations in Iran, triggered by anger over the death of 22-year-old
Mahsa Amini after her arrest for violating the Islamic republic's strict
dress rules.

At least 481 people have been killed in the crackdown and at least 109 others
are facing execution in protest-related cases, in addition to the four
already put to death, according to NGO Iran Human Rights.

The protesters "are literally putting themselves on the line... I stand in
support with them 100 percent," said "Joonam" director Sierra Urich.

"You can't speak freely in Iran, they're imprisoning filmmakers and
imprisoning artists," Urich told AFP.

"I can speak freely outside of Iran -- to an extent."

Iran has arrested a number of celebrities from the country's film industry in
connection with the protest movement. Renowned director Jafar Panahi has been
in prison six months following an earlier conviction for "propaganda against
the system."

While US-born Urich cannot visit Iran for security reasons, her film
chronicles her efforts to connect with and better understand the country by
learning Farsi and interviewing her mother and grandmother.

She learns about the murder of an ancestor, and the story of how her
grandmother was married at 14 to a man she met before reaching puberty.

While her grandmother is happy to reflect, her mother worries it is "very
dangerous" to delve into the family's past on camera, at one point warning
her daughter that in Iran, "the filmmaker will be the one hanged."

"Coming into Sundance, the film is on the world stage. I think Iranians are
always weighing how truthful they will be, versus what they will say causing
consequences for people that are back home," said Urich.

"It wasn't until my grandmother shared the story of her grandfather's
martyrdom that I really understood this wall of fear that had been built by
this authoritarian regime, to so many people in Iran, outside of Iran.

"My mom was trying to protect me from that reality."

- 'Resilience' -

In "The Persian Version," rebellious young Iranian-American Leila (played by
Layla Mohammadi) has a fractured relationship with her immigrant mother,
caused by Leila's sexuality and their seemingly different views on the role
of women.

But as she uncovers the truth about her parents' experiences in Iran and
their departure from the country, both generations of women gain perspective
on their complicated heritage.

"I'm proud to have an Iranian film here at this moment about women," said
director Maryam Keshavarz at the film's premiere, where cast members wore
badges in Iranian flag colors with the protest movement's slogan "Woman Life
Freedom."

"I think it speaks to the resilience through the decades, not just now. It's
been forever in the making," she said.

"Even before this regime, women have always pushed against society for what
they've wanted.

"They've upended the norms and they've learned to find their way of being
free."

Keshavarz has not been able to return to Iran since the release of her debut
film "Circumstance," about two teenage Persian girls who fall in love.

Urich still hopes to visit one day, but is watching the protests from afar,
and for now hopes that her film can be "a small part of that struggle for
freedom."

"I think part of why it's so moving to see what's happening in Iran right
now, and to be here with these other filmmakers," she said, "is it's a real
sense of community, and being able to tell our stories openly."