Iphigenia: book of change
USA, 2017, 50′
Director: Elise Kermani
Producer: MiShinnah Productions / Elise Kermani
The film of a live performance is inspired by Euripides’ plays of Iphigenia as well as stories of contemporary women who have endured, survived, and escaped captivity. A common thread throughout the sources of inspiration is the concept of a prison in one’s mind versus a physical place of imprisonment or incarceration
This performance piece found its origins in the experience and survival by a relative of Kermani at Tehran’s Evin Prison when she was 16 years old. How does one survive this experience of solitary confinement, physical, psychological, and emotional torture? As an “archaeologist of Greek myth” Kermani found a vehicle for her production through the ancient Greek plays about Iphigenia. It is an intense journey through a series of seemingly unrelated events united by situations of confinement, censorship, fear and death. Throughout all this, however, there is a sense of hope of a better future if the characters involved continue to persevere, seek knowledge and listen to their muses. The film concludes with an excerpt of Ellen McLaughlin’s interpretation of Iphigenia in Tauris.
