For a Moment Freedom (Pour un instant, la liberté)

Austrian-Iranian filmmaker Arash T. Riahi made his first fiction feature in 2008 with For a Moment Freedom, called Ein Augenblick Freiheit in German and Pour un instant, la liberté in French. Austria, France and Türkiye co-produced the roughly 110-minute drama, whose characters speak Turkish, Persian and Kurdish. Riahi also wrote the screenplay. The film took roughly five years to complete, played in cinemas in Austria and France, and was shown at more than twenty international festivals.

The story follows three separate groups of refugees fleeing Iran and Iraq. Believing freedom is within reach, they end up stranded in Ankara, waiting through an uncertain stretch for the outcome of their asylum applications. Riahi describes the fragile, temporary condition of forced migration in a tone that is sad yet now and then lightened by humor. The cast includes Navíd Akhavan, Behi Djanati Atai, Fares Fares, Ezgi Asaroğlu, Muhammed Cangören, Michael Niavarani, Johannes Silberschneider, Hülya Gülşen Irmak, Cengiz Bozkurt, Numan Acar, Kerem Atabeyoğlu and Nusret Çetinel.

The film won the audience award at the Tromsø International Film Festival and drew praise elsewhere. Austria chose it as its entry for the 2009 Academy Awards.