A short film written and director by Fatemeh Ahmadi about the suffering of an immigrant mother will compete at the 39th Durban International Film Festival in South Africa, July 19-29.
“Bitter Sea” is produced in the UK. It was earlier screened at the 71st Cannes Film Festival in May and last year’s Berlinale, ISNA reported on its Persian website.
It tells the story of a Romanian single mother who escapes from an abusive husband and flees to London to build a better future for her daughter.
She finds a job and a roof over her head, but the landlord has a strict ‘’no children’’ policy. Trapped in an impossible situation, the desperate woman has to find a way to hide her daughter in the place she lives.
Ahmadi studied Persian literature at Tehran University and filmmaking at university’s Art Faculty. She completed a two year filmmaking program at the London Film School in 2010. Her short film “One Thousand and One Teardrops” won awards in the UK including the best documentary award at the Beeston Film Festival 2015, special jury mention at the East End Film Festival 2015 and the best short film award at the London Feminist Film Festival 2016.
