Hard Shell (Majid Reza Mostafavi) Iran |

Hard Shell
Majid Reza Mostafavi
Iran. 2024. 112 min

Leila who is a young talented tightrope walker, has been banned from performing due to the threat of fanatics, extremists and religious government people to close the circus just because of her artistic movements during her performance in tightrope walking and the way she dresses, and since then she has become a clown in an old circus owned by her father. Samir who is a teenage boy, has fallen in love with Leila and instead of going to school, he wanders away from his parents and roams the circus.
At the same time as the political and economic problems in Iran rises day by day ; Siamak who is Samir’s father and he is an calm and honest hardworking person , after many years of working in different jobs, has just starts working as a foreman in a donkey breeding farm and he has dream of owning a roadside restaurant…

MAJID REZA MOSTAFAVI

Majidreza Mostafavi was born in Iran in 1984. He started his film career by editing and making short films. His first feature film Unripe Pomegranates (2014) was screened in the main competition sections of more than 12 International Film Festivals including Moscow 2014, Sao Paulo 2014, Fukuoka 2015, Zürich 2015 …, and it was admired by FIPRESCI. Astigmatism (2018) is his second feature film which was screened in the main competition sections of more than 10 International Film Festivals and it received the best screenplay award (2019) from Iranian Academy of Cinema ; his third feature film is Hard Shell (2024).
Director’s point of view: Mostafavi has always tried to show a perspective of the hurt and forgotten class of Iranian people especially the Iranian women in his films.