Iranian doc explores shattered lives of female addicts in Tehran

“Khane-ye Khorshid Backyard” was screened for a huge crowd at the Iranian Artists Forum on Tuesday after which Bani-Etemad was present for a question and answer panel.

Supervised by the State Welfare Organization, Khane-ye Khorshid is Tehran’s only rehabilitation center exclusively for female addicts.

“What I have depicted in this movie is only a small part of the problems addicted women in the capital Tehran face and the hardships they suffer,” Bani-Etemad said after the film screening.

“Neither does our television dedicate a program airing these issues, nor does our documentary cinema give it any coverage, and therefore the realities of these problems in our society continue to remain a secret”, she said regretfully.

“But I am pleased that such a great number of people have come here to watch it. I hope events this one will be repeated. The cinema has a hidden potential which needs to be discovered.”

She explained that the one-hour doc is part of “My Tehran” 10-episode series, “Tehran can be studied from different points of view, but what I discovered and depicted is the increasing pain and suffering of these female addicts; and the organizations that felt no responsibility for alleviating any of this misery.

“In contrast to all this pain and suffering, I witnessed positive points throughout the project, among them was the tremendous energy of the officials in charge of the center, Leili Arshad and Sarvar Monshizadeh.

“I always felt full respect for these types of people who make their best efforts for others. I always wondered if individuals like Monshizadeh and Arshad were not among us, what would happen for these needy individuals,” she explained. “The lives of women who sleep in streets, who are beaten or who are raped is extremely painful.”

She then talked about the activities going on in Khane-ye Khorshid and said, “Although women living at this location are extremely oppressed, officials who run the center interact with them respectfully. It would be good for these types of centers to be established in other cities.”

In a brief summary, Leili Arshad said, “What you saw in the doc was quite real without exaggeration. It depicts only a small portion of the hard life female addicts must suffer.”

She also expressed regret over the lack of cooperation by the public sector, hospitals and police.

The program was held in collaboration with the Association of Iranian Documentary Producers.

Photo: Iranian filmmaker Rakhshan Bani-Etemad (R) directs camerawoman shooting a scene for “Khane-ye Khorshid Backyard”.