Mentorn Media has produced the film that the world is talking about – marking the anniversary of a young Iranian woman’s death.
The documentary for HBO follows the story of a young Iranian woman, Neda Agha Soltan, who on June 20th 2009, was shot in the heart by a sniper, and lay bleeding to death in a back street of the Iranian capital, Tehran.
Within hours of her death, Neda’s dying moments, captured on different cell phones, were appearing on computer screens across the world.
HBO is commemorating the anniversary of Neda’s death with a program that tells Neda’s personal story -- the first time anything like this has been attempted, either in print or in a documentary, to find out who this young woman was, how she become such a powerful symbol to millions and what she was fighting for.
Mentorn Media Executive Producer, Neil Grant, said: “HBO has described For Neda as the most important documentary HBO has ever done. It’s an incredible testament to Antony and the team and we’re proud of the international recognition that it’s receiving.”
Because of the importance and timely nature of the topic -- the death of Neda Agha-Soltan -- HBO gave permission for this wide release prior to its US broadcast and it’s been pre-released in Iran via the Voice of America's Persian News Network and on various websites in English, Arabic, and Farsi.
In making the film multi-award winning director, Antony Thomas, travelled from California to the Turkish/Iranian border and within Europe to find people who knew Neda personally or were close to the events of June and July last year.
But the only way to get to the personal heart of the story was to work inside Iran -- at a time when foreign film-makers are forbidden entry, and Iranians themselves risk arrest and long term imprisonment if caught filming without official approval.
Thanks to the exceptional bravery of Neda’s family and Saeed Kamali Dehegan, a young undercover Iranian journalist, Neda comes to life in this exceptional documentary, featuring first time interviews with Neda’s father, mother, sister and younger brother. Her family hold nothing back – intimate recollections, videos of Neda, her private diaries and letters, even the banned books she was reading at the time of her death.
As well as providing important new insights into last year’s rigged election and its aftermath, For Neda gives a powerful sense of what it means to be a woman, living under the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
But above all, For Neda is an exceptional portrait of a young woman, who left her family home on the afternoon of June 20th 2009, knowing she was risking her life in the cause of freedom.
The documentary transmits on HBO on June 14th 2010.
For further information please contact Louise Plank on behalf of Mentorn Media 020 8995 3936 or lou@plankpr.com or Jessica Manzi at HBO on Jessica.Manzi@hbo.com