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CITIZEN-INMATE

( 2025 )
Short Film Competition |
 
Iran
 |
 Farsi |
 15 min

About the film

IIn a world where urban surveillance creates a vast panopticon—a system designed to keep people under constant, conscious visibility, ensuring obedience through the illusion of control—the balance of power is about to shift. What if the prisoners began watching the guard instead? What if they refused to play their assigned roles in this automated order of dominance and submission? This is the story of a society that, unshaken by the growing power of technologies meant to subdue it, dares to rise up and challenge the very foundations of its oppression.

Director

Hesam Eslami

Hesam Eslami is a Tehran-based filmmaker who has been directing and producing documentaries for international television and cinema since 2013. He earned his BFA and MA in Cinema from Tehran University of Art. His recent works focus on the margins of Iranian society. His first feature, The 20th Circuit Suspect (2017), premiered at Hot Docs; his second, The Marriage Project (2020), co-directed with Atieh Attarzadeh, premiered at Visions du Réel; and his third, A Band of Dreamers and a Judge (2023), premiered at IDFA.

Producer

Sara Sagai, Hesam Eslami

Production Company

Screenplay

Hesam Eslami  

Cinematography

Hamed Hoseini

Editing

Mehdi Jabinshenas

Sound

Mehrshad Malakouti

Cast

NA

Contacts

International Sales: Aras Films, Iran, contact@arasfilms.ir

Producer

Sara Sagai, Hesam Eslami

Production Company

Screenplay

Hesam Eslami  

Cinematography

Hamed Hoseini

Editing

Mehdi Jabinshenas

Sound

Mehrshad Malakouti

Cast

NA

Contacts

International Sales: Aras Films, Iran, contact@arasfilms.ir

More About Film

Producer

Sara Sagai, Hesam Eslami

Screenplay

Hesam Eslami  

Cinematography

Hamed Hoseini

Editing

Mehdi Jabinshenas

Sound

Mehrshad Malakouti

Cast

NA

Contact

International Sales: Aras Films, Iran, contact@arasfilms.ir