Romania in the late 1970s. Zahra and Maria form a close bond while studying medicine together at university in the capital Bucharest. But when Iranian Zahra senses a wind of change from her homeland, she quits university and returns to Tehran full of revolutionary aspirations. Separated by both the physical distance and uncertainty of two political regimes on the verge of collapse, the two friends must correspond and report on their daily lives via letters.
Between Revolutions is a bittersweet, intimate memoir of people’s struggle for a brighter future and of two people’s unfailing friendship – created entirely from archive footage and tied together by a colorful soundtrack.

Directed by: Vlad Petri

Written by: Vlad Petri, Lavinia Braniște

Produced by: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan

Editing: Dragoș Apetri, Vlad Petri, Cătălin Cristuțiu

Original Title: ÎNTRE REVOLUȚII

Film Production Country: Romania

Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/betweenrevolutions

Statement of the Director/s
BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS is a film made exclusively from archives, which mirrors the lives and
destinies of two women, university colleagues and friends, one from Romania and the other from
Iran, living in two patriarchal societies.
It is a hybrid film that mixes archives and real documents with fictional elements, having at its core
the correspondence between these two women. The text of the letters is inspired by archives from
the Secret Police and by the poems of two important female writers from Romania and Iran - Nina
Cassian and Forugh Farrokhzad and is written by one of the most talented Romanian contemporary
writers - Lavinia Braniște.
I started working on this film more than 3 years ago, after reading a study about the foreign
students living in Romania during the communist period. I was mostly interested in the people who
came from the Middle East to study in a closed country like Romania at the end of the 70s and the
beginning of the 80s. During those years, Romania had a policy of openness towards countries that
were part of the non-aligned movement, encouraging the enrollment of foreign students in
exchange for economic and infrastructure projects that involved Romanian workers and engineers.
In addition to the general aspects, I was also interested in the personal stories. I talked at length
with my mother about her student years. She was enrolled at the Medicine University in the late
70s. She showed me photographs from her student years, we discussed politics, daily lives and
about her colleagues from other countries. I was always curious how Romania was perceived by an
outsider during those years, being a communist country, so different from the capitalistic, western
societies. Besides this, I wanted to know more about my mother's routine, about her hopes and
dreams, about all the hardships a woman had to endure at that time.
I was born in 1979, the year when the Iranian revolution took place and I was 10 years old when the
revolution in my country happened, an event that I watched live on TV with my parents. These two
events represented for me some kind of historical landmarks and I still believe that the revolution
against the Shah's dictatorship in Iran and the one in Romania against the Ceaușescu regime are
some of the most important political events of the 20th century. All these things together gradually
built up to what is now the film BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS, a film that mixes politics with poetry,
intimate stories with state-controlled propaganda, letters with archives.
For me BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS is a film about a recent past, which reverberates very strongly
with the immediate, current reality. It is a film that presents a subjective, feminine history of two
countries and societies that experimented with different political systems, an Islamic and Communist
one, in which people were gradually crushed by the repressive political apparatus. It is a film that
resonates with the recent events in Iran, where women are fighting again for their rights, just as
they did in 1979. Their cry now, even if not present in the film, expresses what Zahra and Maria also
want: "Zan, Zendegi, Azadi!" - "Woman, Life, Freedom!"

Biography of the Director/s
Vlad Petri is a director interested in political
and social subjects, often mixing personal
images with official archives. His films, at
the border between documentary and
fiction, have been shown and won awards
at international festivals.

Filmography of the Director/s
2023 - BETWEEN REVOLUTIONS, Documentary
2021 - THE SAME DREAM, Short
2020 - THE DEAR PASSED IN FRONT OF ME, Short
2019 - WHERE ARE YOU BUCHAREST?, Documentary

Production Company:
Activ Docs
Monica Lăzurean Gorgan
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +40749100958
Website: www.catndocs.com

World Sales:
CAT&Docs
Catherine Le Clef
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +33144617748