Q&A with the producer of the film, Farzad Pak.

A single mother of two young children, Leila struggles hard to make ends meet but as the nationwide economic crisis hits the factory where she works and she is forced out of her job, she finally accepts a work colleague’s marriage proposal to be able to sustain her family with dignity.
Little does she know that the marriage proposal comes with its own tough conditions. Leila has to send her 12-year-old son away to be able to move in with the new husband; a decision that tears mother and son apart and pushes both of them onto the toughest journey of their lives.
Internationally hailed for the truthful mirror it offers to the stark and inescapable hardships of life for Iranian women, Son-Mother is a heartrending tale of love and hope in a society where it is increasingly hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Mahnaz Mohammadi wrote and directed her first short documentary, Women without Shadows in 2003 for which she instantly received praise at international film festivals for her depiction of homeless and abandoned women in a state-run shelter.
Hailed for her provocative documentaries on social issues as well as her tireless activism, she has made headlines in the likes of The Guardian, the Hollywood Reporter and Variety, and has been supported by Amnesty International and French Directors Guild among others.

Having faced arrests, imprisonment and the banning of her films by the Iranian regime on many occasions, she is one of the leading voices of civil resistance in Iranian cinema and continues to advocate women’s rights through her films and her ceaseless activism.