Past Future Continuous (Past Future Continuous)

Morteza Ahmadvand, Firouzeh Khosrovani

Maryam fled Iran at the age of twenty, wrapped in a sheepskin, hidden among a flock crossing the mountainous border between Iran and Turkey. The revolution had just triumphed, and her politically active friends had been imprisoned or executed. She left Iran — and never returned. With the help of her friends, Maryam installs surveillance cameras in the house where her parents still live: a flickering connection to the past, projected on a screen in her American home. When the internet in Iran is cut off, the images freeze or disappear, sevearing Maryam’s bond with her homeland. Past and present merge and blur. A poetic and moving story of exile, memory, and the hidden ties to places one can no longer return to places that can only be revisited in dreams, through technology and nostalgia.

Iran, Norway, Italy 2025, '76

DIRECTOR: Morteza Ahmadvand, Firouzeh Khosrovani

SCENARIO: Firouzeh Khosrovani, Morteza Ahmadvand

CAMERA: Mohamad Hadadi

MONTAGE: Solmaz Eftekhari

MUSIC: Christophe Rezai

PRODUCERS: Firouzeh Khosrovani, Fabien Greenberg, Bard Kjøge Rønning, Andrea Segre, Giulia Campagna

PRODUCTION: Fifi Film, Antipode Films, Zalab Film

FESTIVALS & AWARDS:

Venice FF (2025): Special Mention Cinema & Art Award
IDFA
Asia Pacific Screen Academy

Morteza Ahmadvand

Morteza Ahmadvand is a Tehran-based multimedia artist and filmmaker, born in Khorramabad, Iran. He holds a Master’s degree in Painting from the University of Tehran. Trained in painting and sculpture, his early practice evolved into video and installation art, where traces of his painterly roots remain visible. Over the past decade, his work has explored the intersection of visual art and cinema, addressing themes such as identity, memory, and cultural coexistence. His video installation Flight is part of the permanent collection at the Musée Georges Pompidou in Paris. In 2020, he served as the artistic director of Radiography of a Family. His video installation Becoming was presented at the 2019 Venice Biennale as part of the group exhibition The Spark Is You, reflecting his continued engagement with poetic and multidisciplinary forms of storytelling.

Firouzeh Khosrovani

Firouzeh Khosrovani, born in Tehran, graduated from Milan’s Brera Academy of Fine Arts in 2002. Back in Iran, she earned a Master’s in Journalism and wrote for various Italian newspapers and magazines. Her filmmaking journey began in 2004 with Life Train. In 2007, she directed Rough Cut, a documentary about mutilated mannequins in Tehran’s shop windows, which won 13 international awards. Her 2008 video installation Cutting Off was exhibited at the Triennale di Milano. In 2010, she created 1001 Irans, a documentary exploring perceptions of Iran abroad. She contributed to international collective films, including Espelho Meu (2011) and Archivio a Oriente (2012), produced by Asiatica Film Mediale and Istituto Luce. In 2014, she directed an episode for the Iranian collective film Profession: Documentarist. That same year, her documentary Fest of Duty explored a religious ceremony introducing nine-year-old girls to Islamic beliefs. Her acclaimed Radiograph of a Family (2020) won 34 awards, including two at IDFA. In 2022, she became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.