For four weeks, ZDF correspondent Jörg Brase and his team traveled through a land full of contradictions, showing people who love their country and yet quarrel with it. Many have earned a modest prosperity that is threatened by US sanctions.
Feyzollah Haghighi says Iran is like a pomegranate. Nice and firm, bitter outside, sweet inside. Haghighi is 78 years old and one of the greats of the ancient Iranian art of carpet weaving. On the outskirts of Isfahan, he owns a pomegranate grove, which he retreats to find peace. \”Because if I see Iran today, 40 years after the Islamic Revolution,\” says Haghighi, \”it upsets me too much.\”
\”The world thinks that Iran is black-veiled women and bearded mullahs,\” says 25-year-old Shaghayegh, \”but Iran is also a modern, highly developed country full of young people who have dreams and want to live like others young people too. \” Shaghayegh finds a way to break free and conquer privacy in a country where public life is governed by strict rules.
But they want to stay and see their future in their homeland, even if the Islamic Republic of Iran often does not make life easy for them. But giving up is not an option. \”For over 20 years I have been fighting to bring color back to the lives of Iranian women,\” says fashion designer Mahla Zamani, \”and I will win this fight.\”
