Made during the time when Googoosh was forbidden to grant interviews or perform, the film artfully pieces together clips from Googoosh’s career on stage and screen, creating a portrait of a woman who is a cultural icon for a country trapped between tradition and modernization. The rise and fall of her career—from her beginnings as a child star prodded by her entertainer father, up to and including her twenty years of silence—is placed in the political and historical context of the ever changing status of women in Iran. Zamani explores his enigmatic subject through interviews with close friends and family, including her only son. And although still banned from performing in her homeland, Googoosh has recently rekindled the hearts of Iranians living abroad on the international touring circuit with sold out shows at such venues as: the Staples Center, Wembly Stadium, and the Air Canada Arena in Toronto.

WINNER! - Vancouver Iranian Film Festival

"A fascinating portrayal of a woman embodying something more than that uneasy mélange of star power and vulnerability that Western voyeurs witnessed in the arc of Marilyn and Elvis, Marvin or Janis. Googoosh is a proper noun, a verb, and an adjective…"
- The Asian Reporter

"A symbol of censorship and oppression… Zamani paints an impressionist and honoring portrait of Googoosh.." - World Pulse Magazine

"Both a feminist biography and a cultural history of postcolonial Iran." - Chicago Reader

"Her enchanting songs echo the poignancy of a long-suffering nation." - Time Magazine

Read an interview with director Farhad Zamani in The Boston Examiner, 8/19/09.

Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer

Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present, and Future by Hamid Dabashi

• Googoosh Photo Gallery
• Rare Music Tracks & Discography
• Bonus Short Films by Farhad Zamani

Format: DVD
Release Year: 2000
Running Time: 158 minutes
Color: Color
Language: English & Farsi w/English subtitles