Mirage
Atefeh Salehi
Iran / Col / 16'48"/ In Persian with English subtitles
A mysterious girl rides a truck on the road. After spending some time with the driver, the man reminds her of her father and her miserable past. She spends the night with the driver, and before sunrise, while the driver is still asleep, the girl kills him with a kick in the head and leaves.
Artist's Statement
Issues related to women and stories centred on female characters are my main concern. The first spark of the film was when I heard from a relative who is a driver that he hits the windows of trailers on the road at night. While the issue of sex workers is a social harm in all societies, it is denied in our society, and this denial causes more harm. I wanted to draw my audience's attention to these women. On the other hand, the issue of rape by relatives is usually not revealed in our society with the silence of the victim, and we'd never know the no. of women who have lost their future and their souls. The woman in my film, however, does not want to be a victim anymore.
Juror's Comment
An ordinary transaction between the truck driver and a mysterious woman on the highway brings the story to an abrupt end, which is full of chilling imagination, brought about by the woman's unspoken past. (Li Ya Mei)
