And How Miserable Is the Home of Evil

Drawing directly from the archives of the powerful Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as disseminated on the official Iranian government website, Saleh Kashefi crafts a speculative montage of remarkable restraint, imagining the fall of a violent regime in favor of a popular revolution.

The film's concept and its execution are remarkably simple. By juxtaposing the arid, cold, and composed images, shot from within the palace — capturing the Ayatollah presiding over a funeral ceremony — with the thunderous sounds of the massive protests that filled the streets of Tehran in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, the artist forces a connection between these two realities, prompting a reflection on the emptiness of power in the face of its populace.

When the people rise and their boots pound the ground, the silence reigning in the palace's corridors — the silence of someone knowing they are condemned — becomes deafening. Worth highlighting is the brilliance of this approach: by repurposing the archives of the regime, this seemingly unshakable force, the artist subverts the gaze of these supposedly untouchable institutions. In doing so, it makes tangible what many deem unthinkable: the end, the demise, of the Iranian regime, seen from within.

Jason Todd
Artistic Director
Tënk