One-take movie by Iranian director among 98 films competing at fest

Time of India

07-07-2025

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Kolkata: Ninety-eight films, exploring diverse subjects, such as AI, the desire for hilsa in a patriarchal household and Kolkata's music shop, are vying for the top awards at the 8th South Asian Short Film Festival that started at Nandan on Monday.
Among the entries at the festival, launched by the Federation of Film Societies of India (Eastern Region), is a single-take film—'Spasm' —by an Iranian director and an Indian producer.
Directed by Sahra Asadollahi and produced by Deepankar Prakash, the short film, 'Spasm', is about what happens when a woman who has never acted in film goes for an audition that becomes a test of more than just her acting ability. "I met Sahra at a festival in Nepal in 2023.
Soon, we decided to collaborate and started work on this 27-minute-long film. Sahra, an actor in Iran, shot the film completely in Tehran, while I was in India.
She herself played the role of the woman in the film," said Prakash, whose 'Naanera' had won in the competition on Indian Language's Films at the Kolkata International Film Festival in 2022.
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In 'Spasm', Asadollahi plays a young Iranian woman who dreamed of being an actor since her childhood but could not manage to get a good role.
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Finally, she is called for an audition, where the director and producer of an upcoming film interview her. From her father's horse to her 10-month-old baby—questions are flung at her from all quarters. Finally, a situation arises where she is compelled to believe she is rejected.
But the situation takes a different turn when she is told the confrontation was deliberately orchestrated to evaluate her acting skill.
In recent times, the long single-take shooting approach, especially after the success of 'Adolescence', has got cine enthusiasts talking. 'Spasm' is the first one-take film in competition at the South Asian Short Film Festival. What makes this film engaging is how minimalism has been effectively used to counter the challenges of filming by a woman director in Iran.
Shot inside one room with minimal production and sound design, 'Spasm' features only an animated Asadollahi seated in front of the camera. The camera angle is such that the faces of no other cast member, including the director and the producer, are visible. For many independent film-makers, who complain about shortage of funds and lack of infrastructure in this city, the film is a lesson on how big ideas, not big budgets, are important for good cinema.
"Sahra is unable to come to Kolkata now because of the situation in her country. But I will be at the festival," Prakash added.