Divorce Iranian Style

Director: Kim Longinotto, Ziba Mir-Hosseini

Year: 2003

This film is set in a refuge for girls in Tehran and follows the stories of five girls who come here. These girls, in leaving a situation that has become intolerable, show incredible courage and resourcefulness. The film explores their experiences of authority, their longing for respect and freedom, and their hopes for a brighter future. The centre is run by the dynamic and charismatic Mrs Shirazi, who protects the girls from their families and helps them to renegotiate their relationships. The film shows how Iranian women are learning to challenge the old rules, and how rapidly their country is changing. Farsi Dialogue English subtitles.

Director: Purva Tavri

Year: 2026

Across India’s overlooked margins, India’s Circularity – Not a Trend, But a Tradition from the Margins reveals how reuse, repair, and regeneration are not innovations - but inherited ways of life rooted in culture, necessity, and care. Featuring voices across sectors - artists, makers, NGO leaders, entrepreneurs, government officials, planners, engineers, institutions, and homemakers - the film journeys through terracotta clusters in Rajasthan, bamboo-timber homes in Sikkim, palm-leaf artisans in Kerala, and community commons in Chhattisgarh. One story is deeply personal: the director’s mother, whose regenerative practices shaped the director’s own circular worldview long before her professional work in sustainability. With poetic narration, immersive visuals, and grounded research, the film reframes circularity as a lived tradition, not a future policy aspiration.

Director: Siobhan Silén

Year: 2027

An animated VR short inspired by autistic musician Jen Msumba, who defies a system designed to erase her through synaesthetic music-making. It explores the universal need to be accepted for who we are. Participants journey through Jen’s life, from childhood, when the world feels confusing and “wonky”. Music is her safety and compass. While others read notes on a page, Jen sees visual maps that help her express emotions and navigate uncertainty. As a teenager, Jen’s mother becomes ill and her anxiety overwhelms her. Years of psychiatric institutions and medication leave her sedated, unable to play instruments. Her family sends her to the Judge Rotenberg Center, whose practices will later be described by the United Nations as torture. Over seven years of confinement and painful electric shocks, Jen is taught to believe she is “wrong”. Secretly composing music in her head becomes her refuge. Realising the centre will not support her independence, Jen writes to a judge and wins her freedom. She rediscovers music and invites us into her musical map, where participants touch and transform notes through movement, shifting melodies from classical to punk rock. We end with Jen performing on stage.