Past Future Continuous

This layered, IDFA-awarded portrait of an Iranian family long divided by geography but reunited by technology exudes a keen and haunting resonance.

Aged 20, Maryam fled Iran in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution, crossing the border into Türkiye camouflaged among a flock of sheep. Now a political exile, she resides in the United States, while her parents still live in the house that she grew up in, which her architect father designed. Longing to somehow bridge the distance, Maryam – herself unseen in the film – has surveillance cameras installed in their home: together with super-8 home videos and archival materials, this dialogue-free footage of her ageing parents, moving around the house or at times performing for the camera, illustrates her reflective voiceover.

Morteza Ahmadvand and Firouzeh Khosrovani previously collaborated on Radiograph of a Family (MIFF 2021), in which Khosrovani explored the impacts of the Iranian Revolution through the prism of her own family history. Past Future Continuous, however, gradually reveals itself to be something more complex than straight documentary, provocatively slipping between historical fact and narrative fabrication – in the process, gesturing towards the tragic broader relevance of Maryam’s story of displacement to families in today’s Iran.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival