The press conference for the Iranian documentary “Angels Don’t Die,” directed by Mohammad Reza Abolhasani and produced by Morteza Shabani, was held on Monday, December 1, at Honar Shahr Aftab Cineplex in Shiraz, during the 43rd Fajr International Film Festival. Produced by the Farabi Cinema Foundation, the film is competing in the festival’s The Broken Olive section.
“Angels Don’t Die” is a 73-minute documentary produced in 2025 that follows the everyday lives and fate of the people of Gaza from the onset of the Israeli ground operation through the successive stages of displacement. Through a human-centered and observational approach, the film focuses on ordinary moments and lived experiences, offering a documentary account of survival, loss, and resilience amid ongoing conflict.
At the beginning of the session, Abolhasani explained his motivation for making the film, noting that following the outbreak of the crisis in Gaza, many people wanted to know what was truly happening on the ground. “During the 20-month war in Gaza, I was making this film while already seeing its end,” he said. “That is why the film is narrated in the past tense. I wanted that, later on, when people ask what happened in Gaza, we would first understand it from a human perspective—how people cooked food, how they charged their phones—before layering political analysis onto that knowledge.”
Producer Morteza Shabani described the film as an attempt to document one of the most significant events of recent years. “We witnessed how the people of Gaza resisted, suffered, and lost their lives right next to us, and we could not remain indifferent,” he said. Drawing a comparison to Kianoush Ayari’s film “Tazeh-Nafas-ha,” Shabani added: “If we want to understand daily life in Tehran in 1979, we refer to that film. Our documentary works in a similar way—it tries to capture how life in Gaza is lived. I believe we have achieved that.”
Abolhasani also addressed the decision to have actress Merila Zare’i narrate the film. “The events in Gaza are already extremely bitter,” he explained. “After watching the finished film, we felt that the narration needed someone who could empathize deeply with the subject, and choosing a female voice helped reduce the harshness while adding a layer of reflection. That led us to Merila Zare’i.”
Speaking about the production challenges, Abolhasani described filmmaking under crisis conditions as exceptionally difficult, particularly because the team was unable to travel to Gaza. “Our communication with the camera crew was remote, and they were not professional filmmakers,” he said. “They also could not go everywhere. All of this made the process extremely challenging, especially since the script had to be written in advance—we needed to know everything beforehand.”
He further explained that communication with the on-site team was maintained through an intermediary based in Lebanon, as direct contact could have put the cameramen at risk of being targeted. “Many scenes had an expiration date and could not be used, and some archival materials faced the same fate,” Abolhasani noted. “Two members of our filming team were injured in an explosion, and we eventually had to replace the crew. We redesigned the project once again because much of the footage was unusable or of low quality. What the audience sees today is the result of everything that ultimately reached us, shaped through a dramatic process to convey what is happening in Gaza.”
Running from November 26 to December 3, 2025, the 43rd Fajr International Film Festival in Shiraz continues to host an international gathering of filmmakers, critics, and cinema professionals through screenings, talks, and cultural programs. The awards for the festival’s competitive sections are set to be announced on Tuesday evening, December 2, during a ceremony held at the festival’s main venue.
