The location for Atiye Zare Arandi and Bram Crols’ Grand Me, selected for AJB DOC Competition, is tightly confined. We see Melina, the filmmaker’s niece, in her grandparents’ house in Isfahan (Iran) or in the car with her mother – nowhere else. In all cases, it is mainly Melina who does the talking and sets the tone. As a nine-year-old, she is officially a woman in Iran, but she is also still very much a child in her desire to be seen and heard, and to feel safe and wanted.
The camera is totally focused on Melina, except when she is with her father; then we watch the grandparents who are concerned that she is not brought back at the appointed time. Her mother has moved in with her new husband in Tehran and occasionally comes to visit Melina at the grandparents’ house where Melina actually lives.
At her young age, Melina has already learned to deal with disillusionment and broken promises – she sees her mother much less than is promised and her father uses her passport, which is in his possession, to exercise power. But Melina has some power as well: as a nine-year-old, she now gets to decide who she wants to live with, although father and mother do not try very hard to convince her of their respective availabilities.
Meanwhile, Melina has to go to school and do homework, and watch films about divorce and make-up tutorials. She plays cards with her grandmother and paints her grandfather’s nails in different colours.
The complicated dynamics are unveiled slowly, through Melina’s conversations with her parents and grandparents. She asks her mother why she married again when it did not work out the first time. She asks her father why he won’t give permission to travel to Turkey with her mother. She asks her grandparents if she can also choose to stay with them when asked about it in court.
The filmmakers do not interfere in any way with events, conversations or with Melina’s musings; you forget they are even there. It is clear, though, that everyone has complete trust in the person filming, or simply doesn’t realise they are being recorded. As a result, you are fully involved in the story, its characters and its defining moments: there are not many but they are telling and they are impactful.
The film is neither heavy nor dramatic, although Melina has to go through some emotional hardship. The young girl is terribly resilient, intelligent and funny – regularly trumping her mother, when the latter once again refuses to answer uncomfortable questions directly. Melina realises immediately in a video conversation with her mother that the latter has gone to Turkey without her, and without telling her. The girl jokes about it but you can hear the pain in her voice.
With great patience, respect and attentiveness, the filmmakers have made a very personal and relatable story of a universal phenomenon: the child who, between two bickering parents, has to fend for herself. And it is an ode to the grandparents, who, with endless love, fill the hole that has been left.
2024, Belgium/Iran, 78 minutes
Director, writer and DOP Atiye Zare Arandi
Producers Atiye Zare Arandi & Bram Crols
Editor Katarina Turler
Sound Design Raf Enckels
Music Naima Joris
Sales CAT&Docs
Grand Me world-premiered at CPH:DOX 2024.
