Shahid (2024) — Film Overview
Shahid is Narges Kalhor’s hybrid, autofictional feature: a witty, politically charged blend of documentary, theatre, musical and behind-the-scenes meta-cinema. The story follows a filmmaker who wants to remove “Shahid” (“martyr”) from her surname—sending her through Bavarian bureaucracy, therapy sessions and dreamlike encounters with Iran’s past, including a great-grandfather who appears with a chorus of pious dancers. Premiering in the Berlinale Forum 2024, the film went on to win the Caligari Film Prize.
Across 84 brisk minutes, Kalhor toggles tones—satire, lament, and play—while keeping the questions of identity and inherited ideology front and center. Critics noted the film’s free-form collage and its oscillation between comedy and confrontation.
Nima’s Performance
Niman Nazarinia portrays the role of Nerges’ great-grandfather in the film Shahid—a character rooted in history and connected to several generations back. NIMA plays a figure whose intimidating appearance and dark, restless energy are designed to unsettle the viewer at first glance. His performance embraces this tension: bursts of lively physicality and an almost theatrical menace give way, the moment he speaks, to a disarming humor that punctures his own authority. The shift is deliberate and precise, allowing the character to move between fear and levity without ever feeling forced. In the scenes where he dances or in moments when he tries, with a kind of desperate tenderness, to dissuade his counterpart, He keeps the performance clear and grounded, letting the changes between tension and humor feel natural rather than heightened. Due to the film’s “film-within-a-film” structure, he is also required to portray a subtly altered version of himself as Nima’s partner, skillfully shifting between these two layers of performance with refined nuance.
Director: Narges Kalhor
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