CITY OF POETS

INFO

Director

Sara Rajaei

Genre

Documentary

Duration

21’

Year

2024

Nationality

Netherlands

SYNOPSYS

Through a collage of personal archive footage and photographs, the history emerges of a small, metaphorical city where all the streets are named after poets. The town’s psychogeography defines the mental and emotional state of its inhabitants, who live in a utopian illusion founded on poetry. 

When the system changes, and war begins, new neighborhoods emerge to accommodate the refugees, and the existing street names are replaced by new ones. Abrupt and sweeping upheavals lead to confusion among the city’s residents, who soon find themselves lost amid the memories of the forgotten poets.

STILLS

CREDITS

Director

Sara Rajaei

Genre

Documentary

Duration

21′

Nationality

Netherlands

Screenplay

Sara Rajaei

Produced by

near/by film

Producer

Manon Bovenkerk

Sound design

Milan Gataric

Editing

Nathalie Alonso Casale

Grading and mastering

Laurent Fluttert

Images from the archives of

Fardid Khadem
Majid Kazemi
Sara Rajaei

Additional photography

Behnam Sadighi
Zohreh Deldadeh

Sound recording

Rashid Daneshmand

Sound mixing

Hugo Dijkstal

AWARDS AND SELECTIONS

2024
World Premiere
74. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin - Berlinale Shorts Competition
2024 - OSCAR ® QUALIFYING
Official Selection
48. Hong Kong International Film Festival
2024 - OSCAR ® / EFA ® / BAFTA ® QUALIFYING
Official Selection
16. Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen
2024 - OSCAR ® / EFA ® / BAFTA ® QUALIFYING
Official Selection
21. Vienna Shorts
2024 - CANADIAN SCREEN AWARD ® QUALIFYING
Official Selection
23. Doxa Documentary Film Festival
2024
Fugas Award
21. Documenta Madrid
2024
Sylver Lynx for Best Documentary
20. FEST - New Directors New Film Festival
2024
Official Selection
16. Leiden Shorts
2024
Best Short Film
19. Sole Luna Doc Film Festival
2024
Best Short Documentary
44. Nederlands Film Festival
2024
Official Selection
23. Concorto Film Festival
2024
Official Selection
5. i-Fest International Film Festival
2024 - OSCAR ® / EFA ® QUALIFYING
Official Selection
22. Tirana International Film Festival
2024 - OSCAR ® / EFA ® QUALIFYING
Official Selection
43. Uppsala Short Film Festival
2024
Official Selection
21. Curtocircuíto - Festival Internacional de Cinema
2024
Official Selection
8. MUTA Festival Internacional de Apropiación Audiovisual
2024
Official Selection
20. ficmonterrey Monterrey International Film Festival
2024
Official Selection
1. Shapeshifting Film Festival
2024
Official Selection
15. Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam
2024
Official Selection
19. Mediterranean Film Festival Siroki Brijeg
2024
Official Selection
17. Archivio Aperto
2024
Official Selection
21. Festival Film Dokumenter
2024 - OSCAR ® / BAFTA ® QUALIFYING
Nomination for the European Film Award
28. Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
2024
Official Selection
11. Porto/Post/Doc

SARA RAJAEI

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BIOGRAPHY

Sara Rajaei is an Iranian-Dutch video artist and filmmaker based in The Netherlands. In her work, she studies the notion of time by reflecting on the absence of image, memory psychology, oral history, narrative techniques, and physical/psychological space. Her artistic oeuvre consists of short films and video installations, which remain in-between storytelling and imagery. After her graduation from the Royal Academy of Art The Hague in 2002, Rajaei attended a 2-year residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam. In 2009, she was shortlisted for the Prix de Rome. She is currently developing her first feature film with support of the funding scheme The Imagination (De Verbeelding) of Netherlands Film Fund.

LATEST FILMS

CITY OF POETS

2024

 

YET ANOTHER LEAP YEAR

2022

 

A COMPOSITION IN BLUE, RED AND OTHER COLOURS

2017

 

THE SLIGHTEST TRACE OF SOMETHING

(in collaboration with N. Lukic)
2017

 

IN THE GAZE OF PANOPTES

2016