Persian Heritage, #111, Spring 2024 —
A Revolution on Canvas is a powerful and timely documentary. In this hybrid political thriller and verité portrait documentary, Sara Nodjoumi, working with co-director and husband, Till Schauder (When God Sleeps), makes her directorial debut with this personal film, diving into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of more than 100 “treasonous” paintings by her father, seminal Iranian modern artist Nickzad “Nicky” Nodjoumi.
The film had its World Premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, HBO will be debuting the film on March 5th (off the record). Born in Iran but living in New York City, Nodjoumi traveled back to Iran to join the Islamic Revolution, making paintings and posters criticizing the Shah’s regime. In 1980, the painter fled his home country following the vandalization of his solo exhibition, “Report on the Revolution,” and its subsequent shutdown by Islamic radicals at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.
Decades later, as Iran is once again embroiled in protests following the suppression and killing of Iranian women and activists at the hands of Iran’s “morality police,” the renowned artist and his daughter attempt to track down the missing paintings in hopes of reclaiming them. During the search, Sara, drawing on disarmingly frank conversations with both her father and mother, celebrated artist Nahid Hagigat, and grappling with complex feelings and mysteries tied to her own upbringing, traces a timeline of events to understand the circumstances that led to her homeland’s perpetual state of political turmoil and to her parents’ personal estrangement, echoing the treacherous path of many immigrant families caught in the crossfire of politics and life.
Equal parts introspective and investigative, filmmakers Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder expertly weave together the personal and political to tell a gripping political thriller that culminates in the soul searching of one family and a moving narrative about the power of art, sacrifice, and family bonds. Sara and Till’s kids are now the new generation fighting for change.
Their song in support of the young women in Iran fighting for freedom went viral with over 1.5 Million views overnight LINK. As a timely update, there was a first ruling in Tehran confirming that there is a fraction of Nicky’s paintings in the museum and that the artist should be entitled to the get them back.