Roya

In the organizer's words:

• EN/LX/IR/CZ 2025
• 92 min
• Director: Mahnaz Mohammadi
• FSK: from 16 years
• Original version with German subtitles (OmU)

Screenings:

• Thurs., May 7, 2026 - Sun., May 10, 2026 at 8:45 pm
• Mon., May 11, 2026 at 9:00 p.m.
• Tue., May 12, 2026 at 8:45 pm
• Wed., May 13, 2026 at 9:00 p.m.
• Thu, May 14, 2026 - Sat, May 16, 2026 at 5:00 pm

Performers: Melisa Sözen, Maryam Palizban, Hamidreza Djavdan

Roya, an Iranian teacher imprisoned for her political convictions in
Tehran's Evin prison because of her political beliefs, is faced with a decision: a forced, televised
forced to make a televised confession or continue to remain in her cell
her three square meter cell.

Roya, a former teacher and activist, is accused by the Islamic regime of inciting female students to burn their headscarves. She is taken to Tehran's Evin prison as a national threat. There she is faced with a seemingly simple, yet existential decision: to make a forced, televised confession in which she renounces her beliefs, or to remain in her damp, three-square-meter solitary cell. Her everyday life in prison is characterized by complete isolation - she only leaves her cell for interrogations, to which she is led veiled and blindfolded, her gaze fixed on the floor as she walks through the corridors, accompanied by the screams and blood of other inmates. The interrogators do everything they can to break her resistance, both through physical violence and psychological pressure.
One day, Roya is shown an obituary of her father during a mock interrogation. She is told that he has died and that she will only be allowed to go to the funeral if she makes a confession. Deeply affected by this news and her wish to say goodbye to her father, who is suffering from Alzheimer's, she agrees. She is put in a car with an ankle bracelet. For the first time in months, she sees sunlight, streets and people again. But her return to the outside world proves to be deceptive: on the way to the funeral, Roya learns that it is not her father who has died, but her sister. As soon as the funeral is over, she finds herself alone again in her apartment - abandoned by her husband Ali, who has not only left the rooms, but apparently also herself. The three days of her temporary freedom fly by and become a grueling state of limbo. Roya moves through her own life like a shadow, constantly under surveillance and torn apart inside. Her interrogator seems to follow her at every turn, while phone recordings remind her again and again of the forced confession. At the same time, memories and traumatic experiences from her imprisonment increasingly penetrate her consciousness. The boundary between past and present becomes blurred, reality and imagination can hardly be separated.