They
might be lifeguards, but their lives are nothing like Baywatch and Vida is not anything like Pam Anderson. For one thing,
she happens to be an excellent lifeguard, but because her team is required to
wear headscarves in international competitions, she can only participate in one
event: her weakest. It is unnecessarily hard to be a young Iranian woman in
Sarah Saidan’s terrific animated short film, Beach Flags (trailer
here),
which screens during the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Vida
knows she deserves to represent Iran at the Australian meet, because she is the
best on her squad, even when it comes to their only allowable event—a race
across the beach to capture the flag. She outclasses everyone until the coach
brings in the abnormally tall and fleet Sareh. Try as she might, Vida just
cannot catch her. Understandably, she resents the newcomer, vibing her hard.
However, when she inadvertently spies on Sareh’s home life, Vida’s perspective
changes radically. It turns out it is even harder for Sareh to be a young woman
in Iranian.
Beach Flags says volumes about
the state of women’s rights in Iranian, beginning with the absurdity of the
restrictions placed on the lifeguard squad, but shifting to the profoundly
depressing circumstances faced by Sareh. It is a pivot Saidan makes with
considerable grace. Yet, even though the film addresses pressing human rights
issues, Beach Flags is really a
lovely little coming-of-age tale that will leave viewers feeling good—which is quite
a trick to pull off.
