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Dar band

Citizen-Inmate
Berlinale Shorts 2025
© Aras Films
In a world where the ubiquity of urban surveillance acts as a panopticon – a prison design that instils in inmates a state of conscious and permanent visibility ensuring the automatic functioning of power – the tables are about to turn. What if prisoners watched the guard instead? What if they refused to play their part in this automated system of dominance and control? This is the story of a society that, unintimidated by the rapid expansion of technologies that are meant to subdue it, rises up and challenges the foundations of its oppression.
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by Hesam Eslami (Director, Screenplay) Iran 2025 Farsi 15' Colour & Black/White World premiere | Documentary form

Crew

Director Hesam Eslami
Screenplay Hesam Eslami
Producer Hesam Eslami

Produced by

Aras Films

Photos

Hesam Eslami

© Nina Schollaardt

The director and producer was born in Ahwaz, Iran in 1982 and received a BFA and MA in cinema from the Tehran University of Art. His work focuses on juvenile offenders and social harms.

Filmography

2017 20th Circuit Suspects 2020 The Marriage Project 2025 Dar band (Citizen-Inmate); short documentary

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025