THE LOCUST

The Locust

(Malakh)

Written and Directed by: Faeze Azizkhani

Producers: Manijeh Hekmat (Bamdad Film), Mahshid Ahangarani Farahani (Bamdad Film)

Co-producer: Yasmin Khalifa (KapFilme)

Production Companies: Bamdad Film, DEFC

Executive Producer: Daryosh Hekmat

Production Manager: Parisa Nemati Moghadam

Director of Photography: Alireza Barazandeh

Editors: Hamidreza Barzegar, Majid Barzegar

Music (on the title sequence): Hesam-eddin Salehbeig

Production Designer: Soheil Danesh Eshraghi

Costume Designer: Rana Amini

Sound Designer: Iraj Shahzadi

Make-up: Siamak Ahmadi

Cast: Hanieh Tavassoli (Hanieh), Pegah Ahangarani Farahani (Pegah), Ali Mosaffa (Ghost of Hanieh’s Father), Pedram Sharifi (Pedram), Ramin Sadighi (Ramin), Amaneh Agharezakashi (Hanieh’s Mom), Ahmad Azizkhani (Hanieh’s Brother), Majid Azizkhani (Hanieh’s Brother), Dorna Madani (Assistant Director).

Iran / Germany, 2022, ARRI ALEXA MINI, DCP, 2K, Color, 1:2.39, 5.1, 79 mins.

Languages: Farsi.

Current Status: Completed.

Logline:

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” ― Virginia Woolf

Synopsis:

Hanieh is a broke forty year old woman on the verge of being thrown out from her apartment by her landlord. She has tried to make a film based on her own semi-autobiographical script for years, but after accepting that she has no luck to fulfill her dream, she has no other choice than selling the script to one of her best friends who is capable of directing the film. Due to her love for the script and its details, Hanieh is not able to tolerate any indifferent and ignorant reactions during the preproduction stages, but she decides not to get involved in any conflict with the director, the cast and the crew. However, during the reading rehearsal, when others begin to judge her character as described in the script and name her a bastard and a loser, Hanieh loses her temper and gets anxious. At her friend’s office, the investor calls off the project and Hanieh’s mother appears to force her to sell her diseased father’s house, the situation gets more and more complicated.

Director’s View:

THE LOCUST is a film about the losers… In our times, the life has turned into a talent show, putting spotlight on the winners. Then, undoubtedly, carrying their sorrow on their back, the losers try to escape the miserable reality of their lives: the reality of being kept unseen. So they have no way but either desperately seeking a way to change or helplessly taking refuge in the land of the dreams and the tranquilizers. THE LOCUST is a film about the losers, seen through the point of view of a loser, in a world which could not bear any gaps between the dream and the reality, between the dramas and the documentary.

Director’s Profile:

Born in 1982 in Tehran, Faeze Azizkhani studied cinema and completed the courses in Abbas Kiarostami’s workshops. In 1999, she started her film career as a short film director in Iranian Youth Cinema Society and continued working as script girl and assistant director. After directing some seven short and documentary films and garnering a number of awards, in 2015, Azizkhani wrote, directed and invested her debut feature film, FOR A RAINY DAY, benefitting from the presence of Abbas Kiarostami as the advisor. The film won the Art and Experience Award in Fajr International Film Festival and participated in Silk Road International Film Festival in China. Subsequently, as one of the talents of the year, she was invited to meet Martin Scorsese and visit film people in five states in USA. Her second feature film, THE LOCUST, was premiered at SXSW 2022.

Feature Films: 2015- FOR A RAINY DAY; 2021- THE LOCUST.

Festivals and Awards:

1- South by Southwest – SXSW (USA – March 2022).