Between Revolutions

Zahra and Maria became friends while studying medicine at university in 1970s Bucharest. Before graduating, however, Zahra returned to Iran to join the popular movement against the Shah. Eventually, Zahra’s dreams of controlling her own destiny fade, along with the hope of a political transformation. She never returns to Bucharest. Meanwhile Romanian Maria is working in a hospital during the rigid Ceaușescu regime; her own revolution is some way off. As their correspondence reveals, fitting into society’s expectations is never easy for either woman. Director Vlad Petri’s hybrid film, neither documentary nor fiction, uses archival footage alongside their ‘letters’ to draw parallels between revolutions, whilst questioning the nature of their enduring relationship.