Locarno review: Blind ins Auge (2025)

Pardi di Domani
International Competition

“What happens when security forces aim at vision itself?” This is the fundamental question of Blind, ins Auge, an experimental film created by filmmakers Atefeh Kheirabadi and Mehrad Sepahnia and screened in Pardi di Domani’s Concorso Internazionale during this year’s Locarno Film Festival. The duo of Iranian origin chose a German title as a symbol for their adoptive country, but the content of the short speaks volumes about the volatile political context in their homeland, while also explaining local concepts which are difficult for foreigners to understand and easier to feel.

In 2022-2023, a series of protests against the regime broke out throughout Iran, with many young people, especially girls, demanding more freedom and rights. The army opened fire on civilians, killing some and blinding others. Soldiers targeted the eyes specifically, as a means to erase one of the most valuable assets of a witness of injustice: sight. How can one be a reliable witness if they do not see? But ‘when one mouth is shut, another one continues the chant’, and in the world of social media, images thrive and stand as evidence even after the loss of human vision. People united in a mass of collective bodies now tell each other’s stories with the help of technology.

The directors use authentic footage from the violent events to reconstruct narratives, adding their distant but still subjective perspective into the mix. Some of the videos were shot by victims before they got hit, creating an extremely genuine feeling of danger and transporting the audience directly into the middle of the action, but without any graphic details. These images are intertwined with ones that document the creative process of the team, because the film is also about them and their complicated relationship with home – reconciling their roots with the present-day context of the country and their intrinsic responsibilities to show the truth to the world.

Country: Germany, Iran
Language: Farsi, German, Kurdish, Arabic
Year: 2025
Runtime: 20′
Directors|Screenwriters|Producers|Editing: Atefeh Kheirabadi, Mehrad Sepahnia
Voice: Tanasgol Sabbagh
Executive Producers: Julian Gerchow, Kolja Volkmar
Cinematography: Marius Kast
Sound Design: Robin Harff, Floyd Fürstenau, Aaron Rühl