Get curated editors’ picks, peeks behind the scenes, film recommendations and more.
Based on the British-Iranian filmmaker Maryam Mohajer’s experiences of life during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Red Dress. No Straps. (2018) explores the sunny naivety of Marmar, a young girl living amid the conflict. At school, Marmar is instructed to say ‘Death to America’ each day. But at home, her grandfather tunes into Voice of America radio, and her uncle sends her countless pictures from his life in the United States, where he’s training to become a professor. However, she’s far less concerned by these contradictory messages about the world than by the small intrigues of her everyday life, like eavesdropping on gossiping adults and eagerly awaiting the strapless red dress her grandmother has promised to make for her, emulating one worn by her favourite American pop star. With an emotive visual style and a playful piano score that evoke the innocence of childhood, Mohajer’s highly original short deftly draws out the jarring realities of living, and not living, through war.
Director: Maryam Mohajer
Composer: Tanera Dawkins
video
Animals and humans
One man’s quest to save an orphaned squirrel, as narrated by David Attenborough
14 minutes
video
Computing and artificial intelligence
A future in which ‘artificial scientists’ make discoveries may not be far away
9 minutes
video
History
Hags, seductresses, feminist icons – how gender dynamics manifest in witches
13 minutes
video
Wellbeing
Children of the Rwandan genocide face a unique stigma 30 years later
20 minutes
video
War and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
video
Nature and landscape
California’s landscapes provide endless inspiration for a woodcut printmaker
10 minutes
video
Love and friendship
Never marry a man you love too much, and other views on romance in Sierra Leone
5 minutes
video
Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes
video
Virtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes