The setting for Atiye Zare Arandi’s Grand Me is tightly circumscribed. 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 completely 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 to 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 she promises, her father uses Melina’s 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 have her with them.
Meanwhile, Melina has to go to school, 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 filmmaker does not interfere in any way with events, conversations or with Melina’s musings; you forget she is 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. And she immediately realises in a video conversation with her mother that the latter has gone to Turkey without her and without telling her. Melina jokes about it but you can hear the pain in her voice.
With great patience, respect and attentiveness, the filmmaker has made a very personal and relatable story of a universal phenomenon: the child who, between two bickering parents, has to fend for themself. 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
