The short film Iran-e Man, directed by Naghmeh Pour, examines the boundary between aesthetics and political activism through the language of design. The core of the work lies not in a collection of accessories, but in a reflection on the symbolic potential of fabric as a tool of protest.
The central narrative element is the collection of scarves designed by Pairi Daeza. In this context, the accessory is stripped of its ornamental function and transformed into a wearable banner of protest. The prints—depicting clenched fists, victory signs, female faces, and sun iconography—give the silk a specific political responsibility. Design thus becomes a portable act of testimony, a message that adheres to the body of the wearer.
Visually, on the one hand, we see the fluidity of the printed fabrics; on the other, the ceremonial solemnity of Persian carpets spread out on the sand. This juxtaposition establishes a critical dialogue between traditional craftsmanship, represented by the carpet, and contemporary revolution, embodied by the scarf. The solidity of history is confronted with the urgency of the present.
Naghmeh Pour’s narrative dispenses with verbal dialogue, entrusting the message to a series of archetypal symbols: the pomegranate, evoking fertility and life; rotating water, a metaphor for kinetic energy and unstoppable change; the drum, representing the rhythmic cadence of protest; white doves, expressing a universal desire for freedom.
João de Botelho’s cinematography emphasises the relationship between the female body and its surroundings. The sequences of women dancing on carpets in the desert, or the shot of a hand’s shadow on a bare back, are not mere stylistic exercises, but represent a physical and identity-based reappropriation of space. In this context, the desert ceases to be a void and becomes a territory of affirmation.
Iran-e Man demonstrates how design can transcend its commercial dimension to become a social document, combining the formal care of the video with the need for a collective and urgent narrative.