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When Nahid Persson Sarvestani, an Iranian exile, set out to make a documentary about Empress Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the Shah of Iran, she expected to encounter her opposite. As a child, Persson Sarvestani had lived in dire poverty, watching Pahlavi's royal wedding as if it were a fairy tale. She joined the Communist faction of Khomeini's revolution that deposed the Shah when she was a teenager, sending him and his family volleying from country to country. When Khomeini betrayed his promise for democracy, imposing even more violent measures, Persson Sarvestani was forced to flee as well. 30 years later, she needs key questions answered and goes directly to the source. Surprisingly, Empress Farah welcomes her as a fellow refugee from their beloved homeland, granting unprecedented access. Over the next year and a half, Persson Sarvestani enters the Queen's world, planning to challenge the Shah's ideology; instead, she must rethink her own.
Born in Shiraz, Iran, Nahid Persson Sarvestani took political asylum in Sweden after the 1979 revolution in Iran.
Nahid's social-political films have won her over 25 awards including an International Emmy nomination for Prostitution Behind the Veil. In 2006 Nahid was arrested in Iran for her critical depiction of women under the Islamic Republic regime.
