Starless Dreams is a 2016 Iranian documentary directed by Mehrdad Oskouei.[1]
Synopsis
A haunting portrait of stolen childhood, Starless Dreams plunges the viewer into the lives of seven young teenage girls sharing temporary quarters at a rehabilitation and correction center on the outskirts of Tehran. As the New Year approaches, the girls bond and reveal with disarming and often playful honesty the circumstances and acts that resulted in their incarceration. One girl killed her father; another robbed a bank; another was arrested for carrying 651 grams of cocaine. The girls' sisterly bond brings them to sing and dance with hope and allows them to share their tears. Outside the prison walls, danger is everywhere, even within their own families.
Oskouei, one of Iran's most prominent directors, spent seven years securing access to this all-female facility. With incredible empathy, Starless Dreams delivers an unforgettable cinematic portrayal of restored innocence and humanity.[2]
Festivals
10th Asian Pacific Screen Awards, Australia, 2 December 2016.
16th Pyongyang International Film Festival, North Korea. 19–28 September 2018. ‘Informative screening section [3]
29th Carthage Film Festival, Tunis, Tunisia. 3–10 November 2018 [3]
at the 4th Budapest International Documentary Festival, Hungary, 2018[7]
Winner of: Grand Prix – Traces de Vies at the 27e Festival du Film Documentaire Traces de Vies, Clermont Ferrand, France, 2017.[8]
Winner of: Best Documentary Film at the Silk Road International Documentary Film Festival, China, 2017.[69]
Winner of: Jury’s Special Mention at the 12th Pravo Ljudski Film Festival, Sarajevo, 2017.[70]
Winner of: Audience Award at the 22e Festival International du Cinéma d’Auteur de Rabat, Morocco, 2017.[15]
Winner of: Best Film-Teen Dox Jury Award at the 13th International Documentary Film Festival ZagrebDox, ZAGREB, CROATIA, 2017[71]
32nd Annual IDA Documentary Awards, Friday 9 December 2016, Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, USA.[72]
The *Pare Lorentz Award* recognizes films that demonstrate exemplary filmmaking while focusing on the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all and the illumination of pressing social problems.
Winner of *Pare Lorentz Award* by the 32nd International Documentary Association (IDA), 2016.[73]
At the 29th exground filmfest, Wiesbaden, Germany, 2016[5]
Winner of Best Feature Documentary at the 10th Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC), Australia, 2016[74]
Winner of Best Film at the 12th move it Internationale Filmfestival, Dresdener, Germany, 2016[34]
Winner of Grand Prix Nanook – Jean Rouch at the 35th Jean Rouch IFF, Paris, France
Winner of Pare Lorentz Award by the 32nd International Documentary Association (IDA), 2016, at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, United States. The Pare Lorentz Award recognizes films that demonstrate exemplary filmmaking while focusing on the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all and the illumination of pressing social problems.
Winner of Prix Smart at ‘Festival des Libertés’, Bruxelles, Belgique, 2016
Winner of Best Film – Young Jury Award at the 31st Unabhaengiges FilmFest Osnabrueck, Germany, 2016
Winner of Special Jury Award at Antenna Documentary Festival, Sydney, Australia, 2016
Winner of Best International Documentary at 25th Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Arkansas, United States, 2016
Winner of the Grierson Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the 60th BFI London Film Festival, UK, 2016[75]
Winner of Full-length Documentary Film Award at the 26th International Film Festival Message to Man, Russia, 2016
Winner of Special Mention Human Rights Award at DokuFest Prizren, Kosova, 2016
Winner of Cineuropa Audience Award at the 'New Directors, New Films' Festival, Espinho, Portugal
Winner of Honorable Mention
Winner of Special Mention Youth's Jury Award at the 4th Cinema in Sneakers Film Festival for Children & Youth, Warsaw, Poland, 2016
Winner of Grand Prix at the 13th International Documentary Film Festival CRONOGRAF, Chisinau, R. of Moldova, 2016[76]
Winner of Women Special Prize
Winner of Best Photography Award
Winner of the Full Frame Inspiration Award, Durham, North Carolina, 10 April 2016[77] at the 19th Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, North Carolina, United States, 2016[78]
Winner of the Reva and David Logan Grand Jury Award, Duke University, 2016[79]
Winner of True Vision Award for Mehrdad Oskouei at the 13th True/False Film Festival, Columbia, Missouri, United States, 2016
Winner of Amnesty International Film Prize at the 66th Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlinale-Generation 14plus, Germany, 2016[80]
Reception
The film has received positive critical reviews, holding a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 16 reviews.[81]
American news and culture paper The Village Voice ranked the documentary 7th Among Village Voice Top 25 Films.[82] Meanwhile, the movie gained 85 scores out of 100 on the Metacritic movie website[83]
Scott Tobias of Variety said, "Oskouei is given a window into homes where, as one subject puts it, "pain drips from the walls," but "Starless Dreams" isn't a cavalcade of misery. With confinement comes safety, and with a roomful of like-aged girls from common backgrounds, the rare opportunity for friendship and fun."[84]
Leigh Kolb of Bitch Media said, "Oskouei's style as a documentarian would seem invasive if it weren't so empathetic. His voice is present and strong, and he asks the girls probing questions: about their crimes, about their histories, and about their hopes."[85]
Stephen Holden from The New York Times said, "Roger Ebert once called the movies 'a machine that generates empathy,' and Starless Dreams ... is just such a machine. With the conceptual rigor and emotional directness associated with the best of Iranian cinema Oskouei simply listens to the stories of those who have never been listened to before."[2]
Deborah Young from The Hollywood Reporter said, "Mehrdad Oskouei's reputation as one of Iran's finest documentary filmmakers grows film by film. Starless Dreams is the perfect example of how powerful simplicity can be, when it's underpinned by compassion for its subject."[2]
Kenigsperg from The New York Times said, "Although the movie bears some resemblance to the films made by Frederick Wiseman within institutions, the acknowledged presence of the director, Mehrdad Oskouei, creates a constant tension. The girls — identified by first names or nicknames like 'Nobody' and '651' — show varying degrees of comfort with Mr. Oskouei's questions, some matter-of-factly discussing drugs or stabbings, and others seemingly reluctant to look toward the camera. Yet 'Starless Dreams' suggests that the center's grounds, where the girls play in the snow or work in a greenhouse, are kinder than the world outside, and that release is a fraught prospect. So if 'Starless Dreams' inspires conflicted feelings in viewers, it may be by design. It's hard not to want to flee, and it's hard to look away."[86]
Kenji Fujishima from KINO SCOPE said, In some ways, Starless Dreams is a standard talking-heads documentary, with much of it made up of Oskouei’s interviews with the girls in the detention center as learns their histories and how they feel about their lives. But he also alternates these intimate chats with more Frederick Wiseman-esque observational segments of the girls playing and interacting with authority figures and relatives. These fly-on-the-wall scenes help transcend the grim nature of the film’s subject, showing how capable these troubled girls still are of experiencing childlike wonder.[87]