PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Shirin Neshat, director of the film Land of Dreams. A conversation with Shirin Neshat about her talest feature, Land of Dreams, presented in the Orizzonti Extra section of the 78th Venice Film Festival. Neshat is one of the foremost multimedia artists of our time. This is the Iranian filmmaker’s second feature directorial effort and her first American production. Surrealist, dystopian but also intimate and autobiographical, Land of Dreams is an exploration of the powerful nature of dreams and the subconscious, and an investigation on what it means to be a free American. In this interview, Neshat talks about the origins of this idea, its autobiographical elements and some of the characteristic traits of her art. Land of Dreams is a political satire set in the near future where America has closed its borders and become more insular than ever. The story follows Simin, an Iranian American woman, on a journey to discover the core of what it means to be a free American. She works for the most important government agency of her time, the Census Bureau. In efforts to understand and control its populous, the government has begun a program to record the citizen’s dreams. Simin, one of the Census Bureau’s lead dream catchers, is unaware of this devious plot. She herself, being among the last immigrants allowed into the country, is torn between her appreciation for America’s acceptance, compassion for those whose dreams she is recording and a truth she must find within. Playful and poignant, Land of Dreams acknowledges the greatness of the American experiment while offering a warning beacon for what could come. The post Shirin Neshat – Land of Dreams #Venezia78 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.