Window Horses - Behind the Curtains

Why Iran? “Of course,” says filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming, “the connection is a deeply personal one. But I wanted to take that personal connection and use it to talk about universal truths.”

Iran is a rich and ancient culture - one of the “cradles of civilization”. Like all places, it has had its upheavals and the Iranian diaspora is all over the world, including a large Persian population in Vancouver, where Rosie is from.

When we say the word “Iran” some conjure up provocative cinema, brilliant and stylish friends, excellent food, warm hospitality, but there is also a more pervasive and difficult vision of that country portrayed in popular culture and news that engenders mistrust and fear. Fear of difference. Fear of others.

Window Horses wants to explore differences so we can see our common humanity, it wants to open up a conversation about poetry and family.

This film, while embedded in and celebrating Persian culture, is meant to reference all diasporas… all people who have left their own homes to find themselves outsiders in other lands and whose children straddle more than one culture, perhaps without knowing their own parents’ pasts.

Rosie, visiting Iran for the first time, learns about the culture through poetry and she learns about her own father’s history seen through other people’s eyes. By listening to the experience of others, she learns about herself. History is relatives.

Mehran, Rosie’s father, is played by Navid Neghaban.

Excerpted page from Window Horses graphic novel.