Adjustment

Short Synopsis:
The nine years-old effeminate boy, Shahrokh, humiliated and pushed away by his family and friends makes up his mind to adjust himself to his new identity and comes out to the people of his village. Having been through a variety of ordeal, Shahrokh, dressed in girl’s clothes, shows up in the class before his classmates.

Director’s Biography:
Mehrdad Hassani is a writer and director, sculptor and a photographer who is from Rafsanjan (one of the desert areas of Iran). He began his artistic career in his teenage years by joining school theater groups as an actor. In his youth, he became interested in sculpture and a few years later, he held a large exhibition of his works in the city of Kerman, which was well noticed and admired by the audience. Then, at the same time, he enrolled in photography and filmmaking classes of the Iranian Youth Cinema Society, and after passing some specialized courses, he produced some short fiction films, and also participated in feature film making as a director’s consultant and costume and scenic designer. Hassani successfully completed the directing courses of Mr. Asghar Farhadi and the acting courses of Mr. Hamid Samandarian. He is also a graduate of Bachelor of Art Studies from Sooreh University of Tehran. He has made five fiction short films as a filmmaker so far, which has received more than 130 appearances and 27 international awards.

Filmography:
Maybe I know / 25min / 2011
Silence / 13min / 2013
Daughter / 15min / 2016
Sheida’s Homework / 10min / 2020
Adjustment / 17:09 / 2022

Director Statement
In my opinion, drawing political borders and favoring of an ethnic group over the others based on their place of birth are as equally absurd and immoral as drawing a line between people on the basis of their gender and sexuality. Sadly, there are still men, in Iran and many other developing countries, who view people with contrasting sexual orientations as perverts, evils, and threats to their community. The idea behind making this picture goes back to my childhood and my first year in the school when I witnessed the inability of my helpless friend next door to come to grips with his physical characteristics as a boy and the humiliation and rejection he was subject to from his parents and friends because of his girly behaviors. I couldn’t do him a good turn back then, but now I’m delighted that I can draw the people’s attention, through this picture, to the questions on whether humans are different from each other or they are inherently equal?; Whether this mount of violence is a product of the collective mind of a sick person persistently trying to ignore the truth?; Whether this amount of verbal and physical abuse is normal to happen to a human being with only different sexual tendencies?; Where this amount of aggression and bias towards such a human being is rooted from? I believe that the world is built on the awareness and I try, as much as possible, to align my steps in the light of this end.

Categories: Drama