In collaboration with Le Gesù, Festival Accès Asie is pleased to present the excellent documentary Amin (Original Farsi version with English subtitles) by the Iranian-Canadian filmmaker Shahin Parhami, on Saturday May 4th, at 7:30pm.
Born in Shiraz, Iran, the writer, director, and producer Shahin Parhami presents the film Amin that has been crowned by numerous prizes and was greeted in various national and international festivals. Amin tells the story and the musical tradition of the Qashqai, a nomadic tribe in Iran. The story is that of a man’s struggle to preserve this musical tradition. It is told using a unique approach to documentary storytelling that challenges the boundaries of fiction and reality.
Amin portrays the Qashqai musician Amin Aghaie, a young modern nomad from South Iran and his family who despite steep financial, cultural and political obstacles are dedicated to their art and culture. Amin travels to remote towns and villages to record the music of the surviving masters whose numbers decline each year. His nomadic family are selling their meagre belongings to help support their son’s education in performance and ethnomusicology at Tchaikovsky’s Conservatory in Kiev, Ukraine, but it is not enough. In desperation to finish his academic education, Amin sells his violins, one at a time, just to pay for his tuition.
The screening of this touching film will be followed by a period of questions and answers with the film director Shahin Parhami.