Sepideh: Reaching for the Stars

Editor’s note: This film is no longer available online.

Sepideh is a young Iranian woman who dares to dream of a future as an astronaut.

At night, she stares up at the sky while taking lessons from a space fanatic who teaches schoolchildren about astronomy.

At home, full of hope and longing, she watches recordings of the world’s first female space tourist, Iranian-American, Anousheh Ansari.

When Sepideh’s father died suddenly six years ago, she discovered that she could feel closer to him by watching the stars, and so her dream was born. But not everyone around her appreciates her boundless ambition.

With no money to pay for university, her mother and uncle are worried about her future. She doesn’t want to learn how to cook, hardly ever visits her family, and doesn’t seem to be thinking about marriage at all.

In Sepideh: Reaching for the Stars , we follow this brave young woman as she watches the stars, while tensions steadily rise at school, in the mosque and at home.

As time passes, it becomes clear just how at odds her dreams are with her current reality and the expectations of those around her.

Fortunately, Sepideh is able to express all her thoughts, dreams and cares in the letters she writes to her hero, Albert Einstein.

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FILMMAKER’S VIEW

By Berit Madsen

To me there is a universal tone in the film that is instantly recognisable. A young woman is at a crossroads between childhood and adulthood, and at the very same time she is trying to break away from traditions and find her own niche in life.

However, what makes Sepideh special and gives the story impact, is the way in which her actions and the resistance she encounters, reveal the fundamental conflicts that exist between young Iranians and a society with a framework that is all too easily reproduced and mirrored in everyday life.

In many ways Sepideh’s mother and her uncles represent a system that leaves much to be desired in terms of young people’s aspirations and desires to determine their own lifestyles. The Iranian context is ever present in the film, and uncle Hadi is the perfect reminder of the fact that even the slightest wrong turn in this society can have fatal consequences.

Sepideh is the perfect example of the fact that it takes courage and an enormous willpower to go head-to-head with a conservative and controlling society, and that one must never take freedom for granted. Her immense enthusiasm for the stars and the beauty of the universe seeps through the film, and her actions show that taking your destiny into your own hands is courageous, but it may hurt the ones who love you the most.

This film tells the story of a young woman who dares to pursue her dream in order to come to terms with her ultimate loss and thereby liberate herself in an environment whose ideals are directly opposing. How will this clash turn out?

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