In Rehearsals for a Revolution, acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Pegah Ahangarani turns to her country’s past in search of an explanation for its present. Weaving home movies, archival footage and news reports into a visual essay, she traces decades of conflict and resistance, from the 1979 Islamic Revolution, through the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, to the mass killing of protesters in 2026 and the war with Israel and the United States. Each of the film’s five chapters is dedicated to friends and relatives she has lost over the years, reminding us that the consequences of sweeping political upheaval are always borne by individuals. Ahangarani cites Jonas Mekas’s poetry and his free-form approach to reconstructing memory as key influences on the film’s structure. Rehearsals for a Revolution won L’Œil d’or for Best Documentary at Cannes.
