Kobra Saeedi (Shahrzad) is a renowned poet and one of the first female filmmakers of Iran. However, she currently has no place to sleep and lives in the slums.
“When you sleep in the parks, little by little you lose your fear of sleeping next to the homeless, the mice, cats and roaches, and you get used to the hardships. In the warm nights of summer, you can stare to the stars and for the thousandths time you can look for your lucky star, and once again you won’t find it.
In the mornings you wake up and you need to go the bathroom; that is when your dilemmas begin. This very ordinary routine for people in the ordinary world becomes a major problem.
Where should I go? What should I do? Where should I place my bags?
At times, you feel like you are an alien that has been thrown here from a faraway world, without having anything in common?” she said.
Saeedi, poet, actress, member of the Writers Club, storywriter and one of the first female filmmakers in Iran, was born on December 9, 1946 in Tehran. In 1977 she made her first film named “Maryam and Mani” in which Pouri Banaie played a role in. Following the 1979 revolution and Khomeini’s coming to power, she lost all her assets, books and films. She took part in the women’s demonstration on March 8, 1979 and took video footages of that rally. It is said that she was arrested in that demonstration. Afterwards she experienced a harsh life until now.