Surviving Fortress

Surviving Fortress
Iran, 2021, 52’
in Farsi w/ Arm./Eng. subtitles

Director and Scriptwriter: Farshad Fadaian
Cinematographers: Farshad Fadaian, Faraz Fadaian
Producers: Farshad Fadaian, Elaheh Nobakht
Editor: Farshad Fadaian
Sound: Faraz Fadaian

More than half of Iran’s land is a dry plateau. Many civilizations and cultures emerged in this dry land thousands of years ago. The goal of the inhabitants of this plateau for millennia and centuries in agriculture was to bring water from the depth to the surface and Qanat is one of the amazing phenomena in the irrigation culture of Iran and the world. Director Farshad Fadaian’s son had found Morteza on a journey to a desert. He lives far from the city, on a vast farm where it’s not known whether the Qanat will continue to supply water and how long Morteza and his wife are able to work. Now, after thirty years of hard work, being in his seventies he brings every drop of water from the depth of ground to the surface and tries to prepare one more meter of the land for cultivation.

Farshad Fadaian

Born in 1947 in Babol, Fadaian is an Iranian documentary filmmaker and photographer. He graduated from the University of Tabriz with a degree in philosophy and started documenting with the film Stone, Silent Mother in 1988. To date, he has made about 80 short and feature films on various subjects.

Select filmography

Stone, Silent Mother (1988), He and the Birds (1996), Littles Passengers of an Endless Journey (1998), Yamut, a House, a Tribe (1999), Borders (2003) The Last Bakhshi (2003), Ayub’s Home (2004) Home in the House (2004), Dariush and Banu (2005), Old Becomes New (2008), New Julfa Schools (in Armenian, 2010) Shirin Nesa, Where Is Your House? (2010), Me and a Fishing Trip (2011), Jalil’s Sickles (2012), I am Turkmen Even Without Horses (2012), Masuleh Laughs with Khosrow (2013), All Patients of This Doctor (2014), Two Women (2016), Stories of Ahmad the Carpenter (2018), Quarantine Etudes (2020), Surviving Fortress (2021).