The Locust / ملخ
Director: Faeze Azizkhani Run Time: 79 min.
Hanieh is a broke forty-year-old woman on the verge of being thrown out of her apartment by her landlord. She has tried to make a film based on her own semi-autobiographical script for years, but after accepting that she has no luck to fulfill her dream, she has no other choice than selling the script to one of her best friends who is capable of directing the film. Due to her love for the script and its details, Hanieh is not able to tolerate any indifferent and ignorant reactions during the preproduction stages, but she decides not to get involved in any conflict with the director, the cast and the crew. However, during the reading rehearsal, when others begin to judge her character as described in the script and name her a bastard and a loser, Hanieh loses her temper and gets anxious. At her friend’s office, the investor calls off the project and Hanieh’s mother appears to force her to sell her diseased father’s house, the situation gets more and more complicated.