Impasse

Rahmaneh Rabani is a 37-year-old Iranian woman, born and raised in an observant Muslim household. After the death of Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iranian authorities in the autumn of 2022, mass protests ignited one of the largest women’s rights movements in recent Iranian history. With the protests raging outside of her window, Rabani picks up her camera to document honest, direct, often emotional conversations with her family members as she attempts to understand the women and men around her who remain steadfastly opposed to equal rights for women. An energizing, courageous act of art as direct action, Rabani and Bahman Kiarostami’s Impasse turns into a microcosm of Iranian society as the walls of patriarchy and deep cultural and religious pressures spark a generation of women who demand basic human rights. But will Rabani’s struggle to maintain the family bond across three generations crack under the pressure of politics?