Mohammad Rasoulof | From the trauma of existence to the trauma of exile

Iranian director in exile, Mohammad Rasoulof, has already started working from his adopted country exploring themes around the autonomy of an artist

Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s short film about a writer in exile, titled Sense of Water, recently premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). From working under constant repression in his homeland to sending his films clandestinely to festivals like Berlinale and Cannes, for Rasoulof, this is a stark departure. Nevertheless, this freedom has come at a cost. The most prized possession he had — the access to his homeland and the resistance stories he was able to tell — has been seized from him.

In Sense of Water, a forty-minute exploration of immigrant alienation and language politics, a writer contemplates what it means to belong when one must rewire their understanding of words in a foreign language. It follows an Iranian writer whose writer’s block and displacement trauma are compounded by his travails with learning a foreign language.

“I started contemplating the emotional value of words,” Rasoulof said at the press conference in Rotterdam to unveil the film. “That is the root of the film — of trying to understand the language and researching its effect on us.” The project arose out of a programme called Displacement Film Fund, heralded by UNHCR ambassador Cate Blanchett. He received funding to the tune of 100K in euros (around 10 crores), along with other displaced directors from across the world including from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia.

A still from ‘Sense of Water’ | Photo Credit: IFFR

“There is an urgency to get these stories out. That’s why we decided on the short film format,” said Blanchett on the sidelines of the festival.

In Iran, no profession is more dangerous than filmmaking. Yet working under severe duress, Iranian films have captured everything from simple pleasures of life under a regime (My Favourite Cake, 2024) to subversive themes like underground resistance (No End, 2022) to darkly comic family road trips to the border to smuggle a family member out of the country (Hit the Road, 2021) . Unsurprisingly at every film festival, they deservedly continue to win accolades.