A Feminist Reading of Farahnaz Sharifi's My Stolen Planet (2024)

Misiak, Anna ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7153-944X (2026) A Feminist Reading of Farahnaz Sharifi's My Stolen Planet (2024). Feminist Art Practices and Research: Cosmos, TBC. ISSN 2998-6982 (In Press)

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Abstract / Summary

Worldwide film festival screenings of My Stolen Planet (2024) attracted critical attention not only for the director Farahnaz Sharifi’s creative formal choices but also for contributing to the body of documentaries offering contemporary experiential accounts from women living in Iran. Sharifi blended video clips and stills from her life in Iran with home videos made before the Islamic Revolution. The resulting screen collage guided by her off-screen voice reveals many otherwise unrecognised acts of women’s resistance to the government’s restrictions on their rights and freedoms.
The film, favourably received primarily as a voice of an urban, secular woman from Iran, is a feminist confession—a deeply felt, subjective screen story which elicited my empathy and admiration. In this article, acknowledging the filmmaker's situated knowledge and my own positionality, I examine how Sharifi’s direct personal narrative stirs my compassion for Iranian women like her, despite the cultural distance between us. To prompt further feminist interrogation and study of Sharifi’s unique creative choices and her unapologetic, defiant perspective, I celebrate her courageous film practice. Using research evidence to corroborate some of my critical claims, I hope to inspire readers to fill critical gaps my discussion of the film may reveal or overlook.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number:	10.1080/29986982.2026.2753790
ISSN:	2998-6982
Subjects:	Art History & Theory Film & Television Performing Arts Social Work & Social Policy Social Sciences
Department:	School of Film & Television
Depositing User:	Anna Misiak
Date Deposited:	22 Oct 2026 09:06
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2026 09:06
URI:	https://repository.falmouth.ac.uk/id/eprint/6633

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