Mitra is an ambitious artist in her forties who embarks on her dream project of making a film about the legendary Egyptian singer and diva Oum Kalthoum. Her film explores the struggles, sacrifices and the price of Oum Kalthoum’s success as a female artist in a male dominated society. However, having left her family behind for her career and in her efforts to capture the essence of Oum Kalthoum as a myth, a woman and an artist, Mitra’s own struggles blend with those of the singer and she finds herself caught in an emotional and artistic breakdown.
was born on March 26, 1957 in Ghazvin, Iran. She is a director and actress, known for Rapture (1999), Women Without Men (2009) and Looking for Oum Kalthoum (2017). She is also very well known as an artist and photographer. In 2010 Neshat was named Artist of the Decade by Huffington Post critic G. Roger Denson, for „the degree to which world events have more than met the artist in making her art chronically relevant to an increasingly global culture,“ for reflecting „the ideological war being waged between Islam and the secular world over matters of gender, religion, and democracy,“ and because „the impact of her work far transcends the realms of art in reflecting the most vital and far-reaching struggle to assert human rights.“
