I DESERVE A LOVER WHOSE EVERY RISE SETS FIERY DOOMS RAGING ACROSS THE SKIES Documentary

Making good on its attention-grabbing and poetic title is an unorthodox documentary befitting subjects Nasser Bakhshi and Roghayeh Najdi, married artists and collectors residing in Tabriz in northwestern Iran. Drawing from disparate sources across the country, Nasser and Roghayeh serve as curators for an archive of found ephemera and uncovered personal belongings ranging from soil samples to furtive love letters of forbidden passion. A bit of a curio in his own right, Nasser’s strict and sometimes hypocritical expectations of his staff provide a fascinating look into the mind of someone dedicated to preserving the past. Exploring the work and artistic process of the couple alongside their approach to collection and curation, filmmaker Mani Haghighi uses I DESERVE A LOVER WHOSE EVERY RISE SETS FIERY DOOMS RAGING ACROSS THE SKIES to paint an expressive and free ranging portrait of the importance for documentation of not just the facts of a nation but the culture of its people in all facets, a message made all the more urgent as bombs begin to fall and turn lives into memory. –Eli Prysant