Director Nahid Persson and journalist/activist Masih Alinejad
Swedish-based Iranian director Nahid Persson has directed a number of impassioned documentaries exposing the corruption and cruelty of the leaders of Iran’s Islamic Republic. Films from Prostitution Behind The Veil (2004) to My Stolen Revolution (2013) detailed the way in which the country’s government has ridden roughshod over the rights of its own citizens.
These films screened at festivals, won prizes and were distributed widely. Nonetheless, Persson eventually realised that the world wasn’t paying much attention. Western governments refused to confront the Iranian regime and the repression carried on.
That is why, in 2013, she decided to stop making political films about Iran. Instead, she veered off in a more personal direction with Anders, Me And His 23 Other Women (2018), a film about love and dating in the 21st Century. Its subject, tennis professional Anders, was a modern-day Casanova, going out at the same time with 24 women…and Persson was one of them.
“But two years ago, when I saw what was happening in my country, I couldn’t continue to close my eyes,” the director remembers.
She realised that other Iranians in exile, such as like journalist and activist Masih Alinejad (who has 4.6 million followers on Instagram), were using social media to report on atrocities being committed by the State against its own citizens.
“The reason I decided to make the movie Be My Voice was when I watched on social media how people desperately sent out their videos to Masih, for her to be their voice. I could not ignore it anymore. The fact that I could also be their voice…was the reason to make this film. The protests against increased petrol prices were in November 2019. In just three days, the regime killed 1,500 people. 7000 were arrested. Many of them were sentenced to execution. The regime turned off the Internet throughout Iran so that the outside world would not see the genocide. But people in Iran always found a way to send videos to Masih.”
Be My Voice, a world premiere in the Nordic Documentary Competition in Goteborg, was put together through the director’s production company RealReel Doc AB with support from SVT, SFI, SWR, Dr, NRK, NHK, RTS, Knowledge (Canada) and VRT. A sales agent is yet to be appointed.
In early 2019, Persson began shooting the documentary, travelling to New York, where Masih is based, and following her subject everywhere. “She (Masih) is very similar to me. She is an activist. I’m an activist. But she has a hundred times more energy than I have…I was fascinated by her – she can be in 10 places at the same time.”
Although she lives in the US, Masih continues to receive death threats from the Iranian regime. Dissident Iranian journalists living abroad have long been harassed and some have been kidnapped and killed. One of them was Nahid’s friend Ruhollah Zam, who was executed in December 2020.
Before meeting Masih, Persson had begun to lose hope that her films could have any impact on how the outside world views Iran. However, when she saw how Masih has become the voice for the young Iranian activists risking their lives, her attitude quickly changed. She realised, as she puts it, that “everybody can do something.”
Making films like Be My Voice is also a way “giving hope” to those suffering and imprisoned in Iran. When they find out that they’re not forgotten, they are always encouraged.
The director has thrown herself into the project, spending two years working on it from 6am till late at night every day – and not, she says, taking any holiday. “I am making this film for my family, for my people, for me,” she declares.
Persson believes that the Islamic Republic will collapse only if the people of Iran are united and if other countries boycott the regime. “We have to understand that the regime is no different from ISIS. They are criminal. They’ve done everything against their people that ISIS done. The only difference is that the regime has been in power for 42 years and have done all of this under Islamic Law.”
