When Zinat came to the village

WHEN ZINAT CAME TO THE VILLAGE

- A GRAND STORY OF SOLIDARITY, SURVIVAL AND THE SWEDISH NATION.
By Nasim Aghili in collaboration with Zinat Pirzadeh. Music arranged and composed by Rostam Mirlashari and Amanda Lindgren.

What makes you leave your language, your culture, your loved ones - your whole fixed point in life - for something completely new and unknown? In this non-polarizing tribute song to all people who have fled, Zinat Pirzadeh and Isabela Duarte Nilsson tell the story of Zinat's escape from Iran, and the Sweden she encountered.

In a peaceful little community in the north of Sweden, a group of people from all corners of the world have just arrived and are being welcomed by village representatives to settle into their new home - the Jörn Refugee Center. Among them is Zinat, a young refugee woman with her two-year-old son. She has fled oppressive Iran and a violent forced marriage. Now she is seeking peace and security. At the refugee center, which is like a society in miniature, old conflicts simmer while new friendships and unexpected love sprout where you least expect it.

With an intimate narrative, live music and spatial projections, Zinat and Isabela bring to life the vulnerable situation of women in Iran then and now, their long and difficult escape, the time in the refugee center and the experience of being undocumented in Västerbotten.

1991, when Zinat arrives in Sweden, is also the year when New Democracy enters the Swedish Parliament, Nazis ravage the streets, and Islamophobia begins to spread in the country. At the same time, many people had a strong sense and practice of the equal value of all people and the right to asylum.

Through Zinat's story, we learn about a story that is also about all those who have experienced flight. The performance is a non-polarizing tribute to the people who today are often scapegoated and used as bats in political games.

In the company of Zinat and Isabela, we laugh, cry and together marvel at the power of human survival and the potential that arises when people look each other in the eye and recognize that everything is everyone's - the forests, the roads, the stories.

The play is based on conversations between playwright and director Nasim Aghili, who also came to Sweden as a refugee from Iran, and Zinat. Together they have made a memorial work that both centers the refugee's experiences and reflects on Sweden's potential to be a place of solidarity and human dignity.

On stage with Zinat and Isabela are musicians Rostam Mirlashari and Amanda Lindgren, who have created new arrangements of Swedish and Iranian songs that have been important to Zinat - folk, pop and songs about escape, comfort and new communities.

Behind the scenic concept is the artist duo aghili/karlsson, whose work is inspired by both Swedish and Iranian crafts, as well as by landscapes in Västerbotten and Mazandaran. With their experimental approach, they accompany Zinat's strong narrative with sculpture and video.

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Zinat Pirzadeh is an award-winning Iranian-Swedish artist, writer, actor, comedian, lecturer and human rights activist. She was born in the city of Sari in the province of Mazandaran in northern Iran and was a summer presenter on Swedish Radio P1 in 2007 and a winter host on P1 in 2021.

Isabela Duarte Nilsson is a Swedish/Brazilian actor who has studied film and theater both in Sweden and Brazil.

Rostam Mirlashari is a singer and performer from Balochistan in southeastern Iran. Educated at the Stockholm School of Music, he is best known as the "prince of Balochi music" and as a singer in the multicultural group Golbang.

Amanda Lindgren is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer from Umeå. She runs the Sound Institute in Umeå and is a member of the groups Barnet, Jeff Elliot and Tree hugger.

aghili/karlsson is an artist duo consisting of Nasim Aghili (artist, director, writer) and Björn Karlsson (artist, horticulturist) who work with performing arts and visual arts. The duo makes performances, installations and public art, preferably collaboratively and often in an international arena.