Shirin Neshat

The final part of the Creativity Trilogy explores existential threats our world is facing. An inspiring film about imagination's power and a hopeful glimpse into the future.

In the majestic galleries of The Broad Museum, a young film composer reflects on the powerful work of world-renowned artist Shirin Neshat.

Four female artists have been politicized by experiences with war, violence and suppression and integrated them into their work, using their most personal tool: their own bodies.

On the eve of losing her family estate, actress Homa is blackmailed by a government agent with a compromising tape. Forced into a real-time video call with her estranged family, which has been exiled since the 1979 Revolution, decades of silence explode into raw confrontation. As old wounds resurface and accusations fly, the line between past and present blurs. Secrets unravel, betrayals are laid bare, and the long-buried fate of two sons lost to history comes roaring back.

Shining a light on the trailblazing role of women war artists, on the front lines round the world, championing the female perspective on conflict through art and asking: when it's life or death, what do women see that men don't?

Seen through the work of eight leading artists from the Middle East, Axis of Light is a poignant and absorbing observation of the influences of conflict.

Two screens face each other in a dark room, only a bench off to the side interrupting the space between them. Settling into this interstitial expanse of Shirin Neshat’s Soliloquy (1999), viewers become mediators, with the series of scenes on each screen flowing not past, but through this audience – asking them, perhaps, to act as witnesses to the ensuing visual dialogue. The titles begin, in English and Persian; then, the sole character appears, clad in black robes and played by Neshat herself. She is looking out of two different windows: one in Albany, New York; the other in Mardin, Turkey, not far from the artist’s native Iran.