Three mil­lion Afghan refugees live in Iran, often facing dis­crim­i­na­tion and endur­ing mostly pre­car­i­ous con­di­tions. Since the tight­en­ing of U.S. sanc­tions and the result­ing infla­tion, thou­sands of refugees are return­ing to Afghanistan every day. The Imam Reza Depor­ta­tion Center in Tehran over­sees the depar­tures, takes pho­tographs, and records fin­ger­prints. The migrants are asked sur­pris­ing­ly per­son­al ques­tions about every­thing from reli­gion to drugs to family mat­ters. Bahman Kiarosta­mi focuss­es on the sit­u­a­tion at the desks and the inter­views pro­ceed­ing at times with a mil­i­tary sharp­ness but mostly with prag­mat­ic com­po­sure and unex­pect­ed open­ness. Like a cham­ber play and with­out leav­ing the site, EXODUS reveals a piece of migrant life in Iran, while also taking a first look at the return home across the border.

Bahman Kiarosta­mi, born 1978 in Tehran as son of the promi­nent direc­tor Abbas Kiarosta­mi. He works as a doc­u­men­tary film direc­tor, editor and cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er. He made his first doc­u­men­tary MORTEZA MOMAYEZ: FATHER OF IRANIAN CONTEMPORARY GRAPHIC DESIGN in 1996. Most of his films focus on valu­ing and legit­imiz­ing process­es in art, but also cover the vis­i­ble yet obscured and unno­ticed details which define Iran’s post rev­o­lu­tion­ary visual cul­ture. His fil­mog­ra­phy includes MONIR (2014), TAXI-TEHRAN (2011, R: Jafar Panahi), RE-ENACTMENT (2006), PILGRIMAGE (2004), INFIDELS (2004) a.o.. He worked as an editor also for two fea­ture films of his father (CERTIFIED COPY, 2010; LIKE SOMEONE IN LOVE, 2012).

Direc­tor, edit­ing: Bahman Kiarostami
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Davood Maleki
Sound: Amirhos­sein Ghassemi

Con­tact: bkiarostami@gmail.com