Amir Reza Koohestani

Koohestani gained his international esteem by directing the play Dance on glasses.

[1] Koohestani's early fascination for literature resulted in the publication of two short stories in local news papers by the age of 16.

[5] In 2001, he created Dance on the glasses, which received a lot of attention from European theatrical festivals.

In 2012, the movie Modest Reception won the Neptac Award at the Berlin International Film Festival.

[5] In September 2018, Koohestani created a short play in French for the opening of La Comédie de Genève.

He also uses cameras and projection screens on stage to emphasise the actual occurrence of the events as well as illustrating different versions of them.

[10] However, this method reminds the audience of different accounts of reality and manifests Koohestani's search for a more concrete one.

[12] The influence of the political situation and female supremacy in Iran are important themes of Where were you on January 8th?

By remaining discreet and cautious in his artistic expressions, he doesn't get into too much trouble with Iranian regime.

[14] Their voices and the 10 year old recording on screen, their ageing bodies, their memories,... function as a metaphor of resynchronisation of past and present.

[17] Hearing is the story of a young student being accused of receiving a boy in her girls-only dormitory.

In the second part, taking place 10 years later, it turns out that the girl (Neda) has been expelled from university, that she was refused asylum in Sweden and finally committed suicide.