‘LOOKING FOR OUM KULTHUM - Shirin Neshat & Shoja Azari’

Mitra is an ambitious artist in her forties who embarks on her dream project of making a film about the legendary Egyptian singer and diva Oum Kulthum. Her film explores the struggles, sacrifices and the price of Oum Kulthum's success as a female artist in a male dominated society. However, having left her family behind for her career and in her efforts to capture the essence of Oum Kulthum as a myth, a woman and an artist, Mitra's own struggles blend with those of the singer and she finds herself caught in an emotional and artistic breakdown.

Shirin Neshat is an Iranian born artist/filmmaker living in New York, Shirin has among many other awards won an Art Biennale award in 1999 for the video art works Turbulent and Rapture and a Silver Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2009 for her first feature film Women Without Men. Neshat started her career in photography and gained attention with the Unveiling (1993) and Women of Allah (1993-97) photo series before going on to video art and feature film. Her art works have been exhibited in the most important museums around the world.