Institute History
Description
For a Moment, Freedom is an ensemble drama about the pursuit of dreams and survival under extremely difficult circumstances. It follows the real life journeys of people who leave their homeland of Iran in search of a new and better life. Refugees in a foreign purgatory, they desperately await to hear whether they've been granted entry visas into any Western democracy. The film interweaves tragic and humorous stories of illusion and uncertainty, of different people, sharing the same dream: one moment of freedom.
One of the stories follows two young Iranian men, who smuggle two children out of Iran through the mountains of Kurdistan to Turkey; they are on their way to reunite them with their parents in Austria. While they await their visas in Ankara, one of the men falls in love for the first time, with a young Turkish girl. He is forced to choose between delivering the children safely and between staying in Ankara with his new love.
In Ankara, we meet another family who cannot prove they were victims of political persecution. They are repeatedly refused visas, forcing the father to resort to radical and desperate measures. The city is also the temporary home of a 40-year-old Persian teacher and a young Kurd from Iraq, the latter of whom always finds funny and strange solutions for the most desperate situations.
Despite their pain, fear, and the enormous stakes at hand, these people never lose their hope, humor, or joy during their daily fight for survival. For a Moment, Freedom is a story about the universal right to dream and the right to pursue those dreams even when they are beyond our grasp. The people in each story may face unique challenges but all are pursuing the same thing;
the chance to turn a brief glimpse of freedom into a lasting one.