“Empty Your Pockets”
Recipient of The Sean Connery Award for Best Actor
The Jury’s Statement: Kiarash Dadgar’s gentle performance moved us deeply. His precise gestures and strong presence made us think about our own behavior upon the current state of things. Do we really dare to ask the dreaded question: Are we being honest with ourselves?
Hassan is a young airport customs officer who must secure an advance on his salary to afford his mother’s medication. As the dark side of his job becomes more clear, Hassan must decide what matters to him the most, and what cost he is willing to pay.
Starring: Kiarash Dadgar, Amir Zavosh, Toomaj Danesh Behzadi, Nikta Atapour, Leyla Shamshiri, Bahman Dadui, Payman Shariaty, Banafsheh Taherian,
Director: Tara Aghdashloo
Director of Photography: Farhad Ghaderi
Editor: Abolfazl Talooni
Music: Name
Producer: Michelle Koerssen, Nedda Sarshar, Tara Aghdashloo
Country: United Kingdom
Tara Aghdashloo is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian filmmaker, writer, and multidisciplinary artist whose work explores human desire, identity, politics, and visual culture. Born in Iran and raised in Tehran before emigrating to Toronto, she has built an international career across film, journalism, literature, and the arts. Her films have received more than 30 nominations and won 20 awards at major Oscar-, BAFTA-, CSA-, and BIFA-qualifying film festivals.
With academic backgrounds in journalism, political philosophy, literature, critical media theory, and the aesthetics of politics, Tara has also written for major publications including the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, and The Guardian. After early work in documentary and broadcast journalism for outlets such as Channel 4 and BBC World, she moved into narrative filmmaking. Her short films The Ride, Bridge, and Empty Your Pockets have screened internationally and won multiple awards, establishing her as a rising voice in independent cinema. She is also developing her debut feature film and is widely recognised as an intersectional feminist, human rights advocate, and supporter of diversity and inclusion in the film industry.