Ghesseha features mostly female characters from Rakhshan Banietemad’s previous films, people who represent different layers of the society. The film also depicts a courageous and honest image of today’s Iranian society and its recent issues, covering subjects like students’ and workers’ movements as well as many others. The characters, which include filmmakers, workers, intellectuals, state employees, social workers, etc., have one thing in common. They are all passionate and in love. Ghesseha, in fact, is a love story of mothers and sons, husbands and wives, and men and women whose love and passion give them the hope to overcome their difficulties, whether these difficulties are the universal struggles of the society’s lower ranks, or any other social or emotional issue. So they find the power to continue their fights for a better life, ending in enjoying one that is brightened by love.

Ghesseha (Tales) by Rakhshan Banietemad – Iran, 88′
language: Persian – s/t English, Italian
Fatemeh Motamedaria, Peiman Moadi, Baran Kosari, Farhad Aslani, Mohammadreza Forootan, Golab Adineh, Mehdi Hashemi, Atefeh Razavi, Habib Rezaei, Hassan Majooni, Mehraveh Sharifinia, Shahrokh Forootanian, Rima Raminfar, Babak Hamidian, Negar Javaherian

Director’s Statement
After three decades of filmmaking the characters of my documentary and feature films are still alive to me and I live with them. Ghesseha is returning to the characters of my previous films under today’s circumstances. Even though Ghesseha is a complete independent version, for me and the people who have seen my previous movies it is a review of the people’s fate and social conditions over the past three decades.