Event

When God Sleeps [framed]

"My songs didn't make me famous. The fatwa did." And so we embark on the journey of
rapper Shahin Najafi, whose bold style and transgressive lyrics put him in the crosshairs of
religious clerics in his native Iran. The clerics issued a fatwa for his death incensed by one of
his rap songs that focuses on the oppression of women, sexism and human rights abuses.
When God Sleeps tells the story of this tireless artist-activist against the backdrop of the
2015 Paris terrorist attacks and the global right-wing backlash against Middle Eastern
refugees. Shahins escape leads to an impossible romance when he falls in love with Leili
Bazargan, the granddaughter of the first Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran. With
such family backgrounds, Shahin and Leili become a modern day Romeo & Juliet, caught in
the storm of Europes refugee crisis, rising Trumpism and global anxiety about
the increasingly violent clash between art and religion. (Tribeca Film Festival)
whengodsleepsfilm.com

This film is part of the documentary film series [framed], and features an introduction and Q&A with the filmmaker following each screening.