Nahid Persson Sarvestani (born 24 May 1960) is a Swedish-Iranian documentary filmmaker. Her most famous documentary films are ''Prostitution Behind the Veil'', ''My Mother – A Persian Princess'', ''The End of Exile'', and ''The Last Days of Life''. In 2007, after having been arrested and briefly imprisoned by the authorities in Iran for allegedly having shamed her native country with her documentary on two prostitutes in Tehran, she completed the documentary ''Four Wives - One Man'' under dangerous conditions. The film which portrays a polygamous family south of Shiraz, was smuggled out of Iran and finally edited in Sweden. As of November 2008, Persson Sarvestani recently finished the production of '' The Queen and I'', a 90-minute documentary in which the director's year-long, complex relationship with the Iranian former Empress

Farah Pahlavi Farah Pahlavi ( fa, فرح پهلوی, née Farah Diba ( fa, فرح دیبا, label=none); born 14 October 1938) is the widow of the last Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and was successively Queen and Empress ('' Shahbanu'') of Iran fro ...

is examined. The film had its North American premiere at

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

in 2009 and is under worldwide release in conjunction with the 30-year anniversary of the

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

in 2009. Persson Sarvestani has received several awards for her films. ''The Last Days of Life'' received the Swedish Cancer Foundation's (Cancerfondens) Journalist Prize in 2002. The film ''Prostitution Behind The Veil'', a controversial and painfully revealing account of the lives of two prostitutes in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

, received an International Emmy nomination, as well as the Golden Dragon at the Kraków Film Festival, Best International News Documentary at the TV-festival 2005 in Monte Carlo, as well as The Crystal Award (Kristallen) by SVT (Swedish public broadcasting television) and the Golden Scarab (Guldbaggen) by the Swedish Film Institute in 2005. Persson Sarvestani also shares TCO's (''

Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation The Confederation of Professional Employees ( sv, Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO) is a national trade union centre, the umbrella organisation for 13 trade unions in Sweden that organise professional and other qualified employees in both ...

'') 2005 Cultural Prize with the author Marjaneh Bakhtiari.

References

External links

Production company web site
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Four Wives One Man
at

Women Make Movies Women Make Movies is a non-profit feminist media arts organization based in New York City. Founded by Ariel Dougherty and Sheila Paige with Dolores Bargowski, WMM was first a feminist production collective that emerged from city-wide Women's Li ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Persson Sarvestani, Nahid 1960 births Living people Iranian documentary filmmakers Swedish documentary filmmakers People from Shiraz Sommar (radio program) hosts Iranian emigrants to Sweden