Parvaneh, a young Afghan woman living in a Swiss refugee center, needs to wire money to her family back home. Unable to do so without an ID, she must venture into Zurich and convince a stranger to help her — a task that leads her to an unlikely alliance with a rebellious Swiss teenager.
Editorial Perspective
Talkhon Hamzavi’s Parvaneh finds its drama in the smallest bureaucratic details — the forms that can’t be filled out, the offices that won’t help, the transactions that require documents a refugee doesn’t possess. The unlikely friendship between Parvaneh and the Swiss girl avoids every cliche you’d expect, built instead on mutual curiosity and a shared sense of being outsiders in different ways. The film’s Zurich is gorgeous and cold in equal measure.
Where to Watch
Available through Swiss Films distribution. Screens periodically at refugee-themed film festivals and human rights programs.
Historical data reconstructed from archive.org snapshots of the Manhattan Short Film Festival website.
