India, March 20 -- Director-actor Mahnaz Mohammadi, an insuppressible critic of the Iranian government, made headlines in India when, unable to attend the International Film Festival of Kerala in person in 2022, she sent a lock of hair in her place. This was both a snub to the stringent hijab laws in her country and a show of solidarity with the Women, Life, Freedom movement that had roiled the West Asian nation-state at the time.

In February, shortly after the Iranian state massacred thousands of protestors and barely days before the United States of America and Israel launched a targeted attack on Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Mohammadi's film, Roya, made its debut at the Berlin Film Festival. The dramatic featur...