Dear Michael,
last weekend we saw a nice movie with mom and with Shafagh. The movie is a Danish/German/Swedish co-production, but the plot is set up in Iran and also filmed there. “Sepideh – Reaching for the Stars” is about a young girl from a middle-class Teheran family who becomes fascinated by astronomy. Together with friends she goes out to a self made, improvised observatory to watch the stars. When they were celebrating a large meteor of the Leonides shower, I had to remember when we went out in August 2010 to watch the Persides in Munich, and how sceptical I had been initially, until I saw this really impressive head-on meteor. Mom liked the story about my own first star watching night.
Here is more about the movie, that was awarded a price at the sundance festival.
In a rural village far from Tehran, the night sky glows brilliantly, unimpeded by light pollution, and a teenage girl named Sepideh dreams of becoming a renowned astronomer. Lugging a telescope as tall as herself, Sepideh spends her nights stargazing, inspired by Anousheh Ansari, the first Iranian in space. But achieving such a lofty ambition is easier said than done for an Iranian girl. Her uncle threatens something rash if Sepideh persists in her unladylike behavior, and her widowed mother warns that she cannot pay for the necessary schooling. Unphased, Sepideh composes impassioned missives to Albert Einstein and keeps her eyes on the prize. Yet when she’s passed over for a university scholarship and suitors come knocking at the door, her determination is seriously tested.
The camera is everywhere we want it to be in this magical documentary—charting the strained, yet devoted, relationship between daughter and mother and capturing unexpected moments that will change Sepideh’s life forever. Shots of breathtaking constellations are windows into Sepideh’s interior world and the vast universe that enthralls her. (from Sundance Festivals Homepage).
I could imagine that you like the movie. If you watch it, tell me what you think of it.
take care
/ghazal
