Farnaz JURABCHIAN, Mohammadreza JURABCHIAN
"Silent House" is the story of three generations of an Iranian family who live in a hundred-year-old, exceptional and historic house. They struggle to live in a society that easily tramples on their dreams and hopes. The two filmmakers, my brother and I, follow our family¡¯s evolution over 40 years, from the 1979 Islamic revolution until the present day. We follow each member deep into the center of their everyday life and past, their pain and sorrow, joy and imagination, revealing a family that is as complicated and volatile as our country, Iran. We observe our family drift apart as the political world of the Middle East unfolds around them. Throughout the archival family footage including pictures, Super-8 and home movies, the film flashbacks to the darkest and most striking moments of our family¡¯s lives, going back in history and evoking memories of the past to bring back the spirit of the house.
I immigrated to Canada in 2004 to study cinema there. When I was in Canada, I realized how little people know about Iran. I realized most people only know about my country through the news. However, the reality of what is seen in the news is very different from what we live in Iran. For instance, the Islamic revolution, war, sanctions, and strikes are just the headlines that everybody gets through the news but we live with them. They are a part of our lives; sometimes, our everyday lives. In 2011, I decided to go back to Iran to make my thesis film about my childhood house. Since then my brother and I have been filming our family. This is a personal film narrated by me, a third generation woman in this house. Lost hope, dramatic fate, suffering, and violated rights of oppressed people are what we, my brother and I, have witnessed for many years. But will this silent house keep us silent too? By telling our family¡¯s story, we try to break this silence, to give voice, and change destiny. We belong to a generation born during the war. This generation was faced with a variety of turbulent issues; the consequences of the revolution, war, economic crisis, sanctions, and more. In other words, we are not of a generation that became indifferent to its time.
Farnaz JURABCHIAN
Mohammadreza JURABCHIAN