Bist Roozi Ké Tehran Ra Tékan Dad

In May 2009, Iranian director Ali Razi (based in France) decided to pull off an improbable project in Iran. It involved immersing himself in the boiling pot of the electoral campaign preceding the presidential election of 12 June with his “theatre troop”, then to crystallize this experience on the spot in the form of a theatrical performance improvised on one of the mountains surrounding Tehran. “Twenty Days That Shook Tehran” embarks us among the partisans of the candidates entering the fray, the outgoing president Ahmadinejad and his two reforming challengers, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The camera moves through the meetings organized by each side, to the sound of “Ahmadi Bye Bye!” of the young Iranians who wear green scraves- the colour that will end up by designating the protest movement of the results of the ballot- or the people who cry “we must break the attempts of the partisans of Mousavi!” of those who back the present chief of state. These rowdy proceedings are interspersed with rambling discussions between the heroine of the film and her friends: what meaning should be given to this vote? How to finish with a liberticidal regime? How to bridge the existing gap between the intellectuals and the people? In this city, Tehran, that nestles “between a desert and a volcano” we follow the signs of the explosion that will follow on 12 June 2009.