The striking documentary “A Cold Land” by Iranian director Shahriar Pourseyedian tells a story of siblings with a disability. Morovat and Mahin had to live in a tent, because their home had been destroyed in a flood. Morovat could only move around on all fours, using his hands; Mahin could not move at all. They hoped that social protection agencies would help them build a new house, but the help was not so quick to come.

 

“He is a very optimistic person,” says Shahriar, “I was surprised by his attitude for the future. I felt it and told him our team would help him. Six months after the movie was shot, we took him out of his tent. The movie was shown at the Hamburg Film Festival and on TV. When the movie was shown in Hamburg, we were given a large sum of money for construction. After this, the people, the viewers, started helping and in the end we managed to build a home for this man and his sister.”

Shahriar believes that one of the goals of documentary cinema is to help a person’s voice be heard where it needs to be heard.

The film viewers were struck by the story and were happy that it ended with the protagonists getting a new home.

By Olesya Pestryakova