s/magazine: JASMIN MOZAFFARI’S FILM MOTHERLAND IS A PORTRAIT OF IRANIAN RESILIENCE

Set against the backdrop of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, Jasmin Mozaffari’s film Motherland crafts a deeply moving portrayal of the alienation often carried by a diaspora. Winner of Best Canadian Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival, the narrative chronicles Babak (Behtash Fazlali), an Iranian university student confronting escalating prejudice as he ventures to meet the father of his American fiancé, Katie (Oriana Leman). “This is my parents’ story,’’ reveals Mozaffari, whose own father immigrated from Iran in the late ‘70s. “I want people to be able to see the Iranian diaspora in a way that’s more humanized because it hasn’t really been shown.” READ MORE