Matthew Briody looks beyond the narrative with experimental feature Dreaming Is Not Sleeping.
The human condition is both examined and interrogated by Rouzbeh Rashidi in his experimental essay film Dreaming Is Not Sleeping. A series of images show desolate landscapes that appear dreamlike, while an other-worldly voice (Meister Rumelant) ponders existential and temporal thoughts.
This is not Rashidi’s first foray into the realm of experimental cinema. The Iranian-Irish filmmaker has been making films since 2000 when he founded the Experimental Film Society in Tehran. Since then, he has directed and produced over fifty short and feature length films. Rashidi’s prior film Elpis (2023) was a poetic essay film which explored the effects of the Iran-Iraq war and the psychological impact of this war. Dreaming Is Not Sleeping shows a different kind of destruction by drawing attention to liminal spaces and reflecting on the misgivings of humanity.
Over the span of two years, Rashidi immersed himself in deserted and forsaken locations across Germany, Poland, Denmark and Ireland. These locations are used in the film to bring Rashidi’s words to life in a provoking and meaningful manner. The film has its own unique aesthetic. Static footage of decaying environments is imbued with meaning as the spectral speech from the narrator travels through time and space. By using such strong visuals and pairing them with the narrator’s musings, Rashidi shows the power of language and the natural world.
Non-linear in format, the fluidity of the film causes the viewer to question what they are seeing on screen. Like a memory that blurs over time or a dream we half remember, Rashidi’s distinct mise-en-scène is ethereal and transcendental. The image of a mysterious cloaked figure standing in a dilapidated corridor is beautiful yet unsettling at the same time. The duality of this image sums up the paradoxical way the film presents all of its images to the viewer. Just as something observed in reality is perceived in different ways by each person, the visuals on screen have their own meaning for each individual viewer.
Not only did Rashidi write and direct this project, he also served as cinematographer, editor and sound designer. To achieve the distinctive aural texture scape in this film, Rashidi crafted his sounds in a similar way to Foley artists who worked during the Golden Age of Hollywood. In keeping with the experimental nature of his work, this old-school approach was linked up with avant-garde methods. Rashidi repurposed broken instruments like a detuned piano and a cracked violin and used them to create unorthodox audio which serve to enhance the illusory nature of the film.
Funded by The Arts Council of Ireland and produced and distributed by The Experimental Film Society, Dreaming Is Not Sleeping is a fascinating reflection on our shared human nature. Rashidi has created a film that is truly unique in its experimental approach to storytelling. Do yourself a favour and don’t sleep on this film.
The Irish premiere of Dreaming Is Not Sleeping took place at Light House Cinema on Saturday 3rd May 2025.
