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Height of the kite

In a rural area of Balochistan, on the border of Iran and Pakistan, women can only sing in private rituals. Fariba, a teenage girl from this region, wants to sing in public like her brother. Can she overcome the gender and racial discrimination that prevents her from achieving her dreams?

  • Mehraneh Salimian
    Director
  • Amin Pakparvar
    Director
  • Mehraneh Salimian
    Producer
  • Amin Pakparvar
    Producer
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    محدوده بادبادک
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    26 minutes 52 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 3, 2024
  • Country of Origin:
    United States, United States
  • Country of Filming:
    Iran, Islamic Republic of
  • Language:
    Baluchi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes - School of the Art Institute of Chicago
  • Big Sky International Documentary Film Festival
    Missoula
    United States
    February 16, 2024
    World premiere
    Finalist in the Short Films Competition
  • Durban International Film Festival
    Durban
    South Africa
    July 25, 2024
    African Premiere
    Official Selection
  • St. Louis International Film Festival
    St. Louis
    United States
    November 10, 2024
    Nominated for Best short documentary
  • Athens International Film Festival, Ohio, USA
    Ohio
    United States
    April 7, 2025
    Nominated for best short documentary
  • Ethnofest Documentary Film Festival
    Athens
    United States
    December 1, 2024
    Nominated for the best student short film
Director Biography - Mehraneh Salimian, Amin Pakparvar

Mehraneh Salimian:
Born on August 24, 1999, Mehraneh Salimian is an independent Iranian filmmaker based in Chicago. Her works reflect social discrimination in Iran concerning women, children, and adolescents’ rights.
Salimian is the regional coordinator of “Docunight,” a streaming website under the Kiarostami Foundation that compiles Iranian documentaries and makes them available online. She was also the Production Manager for the Iran-Germany Student Exchange Project in collaboration with the University of Babelsberg in Germany.

Amin Pakparvar:
Amin Pakparvar is an Iranian documentary filmmaker and film critic. He has made multiple short films that address racial and gender discrimination, state violence, and environmental crises in contemporary Iranian history. These films have been screened at several Oscar-qualifying film festivals in Iran, Africa, and the U.S.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Alongside the native Baloch community, a group of Afro-Asians resides in Balochistan, a region on the border between Iran and Pakistan. They usually live on the outskirts of cities and are sometimes considered inferior in the eyes of the native Baloch community. The discrimination challenges Afro-Asian women who desire to sing and perform in public. In addition, the prohibition of women's singing dictated by the central government of Iran makes the situation more complicated; these matters confine the main character’s imagination of her progress in singing.

As Iranian filmmakers, we are devoted to amplifying gender and ethnic minorities' rights in our home country, and we believe that Height of the Kite, which is the result of years of field-work in the region, has the potential to reveal political issues of underrepresented the Baloch tribe through an intersectional feminist lens.