Looking for Oum Kulthum

Story

The Iranian artist Mitra has lived for years in exile and can at last begin to make her dream come true: a film about her idol, the legendary Arabian singer Oum Kulthum. She wants above all to examine the sacrifices that Kulthum had to make for her success in a conservative, patriarchal Muslim society. But the shoot runs into trouble. Mitra’s teenage son disappears, the film-maker is confronted with resistance to her as a woman and a non-Arab – and the legend of the singer begins to look like an almost insurmountable obstacle. As a film in film, Looking for Oum Kulthum portrays two artists having to assert themselves in a world dominated by men.

Director

SHIRIN NESHAT (*1957) is an Iranian-American artist, photographer and film-maker. After Women without Men (2009) Looking for Oum Kulthum is her second feature.

Trailer