Credits

director, writer, cinematographer, sound recordist, producer | Daniel Asadi Faezi
narrator | Dariush Gigloo
editor | Narges Kalhor
re-recording mixer | Andrew Mottl

color grading | Nicholas Coleman – OASYS Digital

title design | Paul Rutrecht
translation | Isabelle Heinemann

distributor | Daniel Asadi Faezi

Festivals


62. DOK Leipzig, Germany

13. KFFK Cologne, Germany

39. FILMSCHOOLFEST Munich, Germany

26. KURZFILMWOCHE Regensburg, Germany

12. GO SHORT Nijmegen, Netherlands

17. VIENNA SHORTS, Austria

13. LEIDEN SHORTS, Netherlands

21. KUK Kurzfilmtage Schweinfurt, Germany

40. ODENSE Shortfilm Festival, Denmark

09. KYIV International Shortfilm Festival, Ukraine

26. Film Festival della Lessinia, Italy

49. SEHSÜCHTE Berlin, Germany

36. KURZFILMFESTIVAL Hamburg, Germany

20. FESTIVAL DE CINE ALEMÁN Buenos Aires, Argentina
03. CINEMAFEST Orvieto, Italy

14. GERMAN CURRENTS Film Festival L.A., USA
41. VILLEURBANNE Festival du Film Lyon, France

36. WARSAW International Film Festival, Poland

25. FESTIVAL DU CINÉMA ALLEMAND, Paris, France

16. SEDICICORTO International Filmfestival Italy

13. IMAGINE SCIENCE Film Festival New York, USA
19. INNSBRUCK Nature Filmfestival, Austria

20. ESCALES DOCUMENTAIRES La Rochelle, France

36. INTERFILM International Shortfilm Festival Berlin, Germany

24. PÖFF Black Nights Tallinn, Estonia

06. CINÉMA JEUNE PUBLIC Lausanne, Switzerland

37. FESTIVAL International du Film de Montagne d’Autrans, France

21. IZMIR Shortfilm Festival, Turkey

13. THIS HUMAN WORLD Festival Vienna, Austria

09. LIBERATION DocFest, Bangladesh

13. STRANGLOSCOPE Experimental Filmfestival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

03. FIELD RECORDINGS, Rotterdam, Netherlands

10. CINEGLOBE Festival CERN, Switzerland

19. KFFK Cologne, Germany

32. KURZFILMWOCHE Regensburg, Germany

Additional Screenings


Bellevue di Monaco, 2025
#60 Labocine July Issue, 2021

Next Generation Short Tiger – Screening at Marche du Film Festival de Cannes, 2020

Press



The dried tears of Lake Urmia in northern Iran are for sale – salt in plastic bags at the roadside. Once the biggest lake in the Middle East, only a fraction of it is left today. This is its elegy, presenting both its former splendour and its state today. Wavering between factuality and melancholy, the film finally opts for a pessimistic view of society. The dying lake becomes a symbol.
-Carolin Weidner DOK Leipzig
 
A love poem, a love song to a place that disappeared – once one of the biggest lakes in the Middle East, vanished and turned almost complete into a salt desert – lake Urmia. This poetic essay embarks from the former crowded shores back in the time, when there still was water, and leads us to recent images of the scenery. The young filmmaker Daniel Asadi Faezi visualizes the mourning by arranging playful but gently the images and brings Urmia for a glimpse of the moment back to life but let us its loss resonates long after.”
-Jury Statement Innsbruck Nature Film Festival
 
A salt desert as a starting point for reflection on the past and visibility. An essayistic observation, memory work and political appeal. The different sources of images are arranged sensitively and confidently. The camera impresses with excellently composed, emphatic images that are elegantly mounted and set to music. A monumental memorial to the disappearance of Lake Urmia, once the largest lake in Iran, which today measures only 5% of its original size.
–Jury Statement Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg
 
As archive footage blends with contemporary explorations, the film deals not only with the environmental changes within a society but also the social and political aspects that echo these changes. A reflection on identity and memory, the past and the present and an evocation of a society that is trying to reconcile these states of being, Where We Used To Swim is a moving and beautiful piece of work
–PÖFF Shorts, Tallinn