Iran Documentary to be Released January 2012

'There's no place like home because it doesn't exist' says Iranian-Kiwi Filmmaker

Auckland - December 5, 2011 - Film student Ghazaleh Golbakhsh returned to her native Iran after an absence of 17 years, to film an incredibly personal documentary on what makes a place ‘home’.

The University of Auckland student grew up in New Zealand but says she has always felt like a foreigner. “I arrived in New Zealand when I was six. My experience growing up here wasn't altogether negative - I remember being amazed that there were no sandbags at school - but I have always felt like a bit of an outsider. After all, I look foreign, I’m from a different culture, and I speak Farsi at home. It made me wonder, would I feel that same sense of foreignness in Iran as I do in New Zealand? It made me want to go back and find out".

Armed with an inconspicuous-looking camera and a tiny microphone, Ghazaleh managed to film in places not usually accessible to news reporters. Her resulting 35 minute documentary titled 'Iran in Transit' takes the viewer on a journey from the desert landscapes of Kurdistan - only half an hour from the border of Iraq - to the wealthy suburbs of the capital city Tehran. It was important to remain discreet because military conscripts constantly patrol and there was always the risk of having footage and equipment confiscated, even with filming permits.

Filming wasn't always about dodging authorities, however, and Ghazaleh hopes that her documentary will show a different side of Iran.“There’s a lot that people don’t know about the country. Iran is still a third world country, but it is a place of extremes. I went to the Kurdish region in the west where people still live in mud huts and it’s very traditional. But in Tehran, there's an underground night life and young people drink wine, smoke shisha, and party like in any other world city”.

Much of Ghazaleh's extended family emigrated a few years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and are now living as a scattered global Diaspora. So Ghazaleh also took her camera to the US and Canada to interview relatives, in order to compare their thoughts on their origins and on their adopted homelands. The different voices tell a story of ancestry, family, belonging and separateness.

So how did Ghazaleh feel at the end of her journey? “It wasn’t at all what I expected. I wanted to know if I would feel anything going back to Iran – but I didn’t feel like I was at home at all. I had never felt more Western in my life! At the same time, I'm still not one hundred per cent Kiwi".

Ghazaleh found that her sentiments were echoed by her peers and other expatriated youth who have grown up as migrants "There is a human instinct to find a place to belong to, but I think it's possible to negotiate between two worlds. Home isn't necessarily rooted in one fixed place".

This is not always a bad thing. "There are advantages in being 'homeless'. I get to keep the Persian language and culture, but I have the advantages of having grown up with the New Zealand way of life which is great. Before I made this documentary, I was at war with my identity, but now I feel more at peace with it".    

Ghazaleh’s MA thesis film was supervised by one of New Zealand’s most renowned documentary makers, Annie Goldson. It will be ready for release in early 2012.

Ghazaleh is travelling to the US in 2012 on a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California, one of the most prestigious film schools in the world.

Fulbright General Graduate Scholarships are awarded to only eight outstanding graduate students across New Zealand each year to travel to the US to complete further study.

The scholarship covers a large portion of her fees, but she is still hoping to attract additional sponsorship to make completion of her final year of study possible.