MY STOLEN
REVOLUTION
A
student activist in Iran's
1979 revolution that overthrew the dictatorial Shah, Nahid Persson Sarvestani
fled to Sweden with her baby after Islamists seized power and began
persecuting leftists who had been their revolutionary allies. Three
decades later, events in Iran inspire Nahid to revisit that part of her life.
Prompted by brutal crackdowns on anti-government protests in 2009 and
long-suppressed guilt for abandoning a younger brother to imprisonment and
death, the internationally acclaimed filmmaker locates and reunites with five
female activists who survived torture and terror in the Islamist regime's
jails. Now living in exile, the women share gripping accounts of how their
jailers tried to break them physically and spiritually, and describe what
sustained them during these horrible ordeals. With the support of these
stalwart survivors, Sarvestani finds answers to haunting questions about her
brother's last days. Shifting skillfully between past and present, this
deeply personal documentary is an essential resource for understanding Iran today.