Tafakory’s blend of reality and fiction is ‘a compelling exploration of displacement, memory and resistance’ according to the judging panel

Iranian artist Maryam Tafakory has won this year’s Film London Jarman award, which recognises British excellence in the field of moving image.

Tafakory took the £10,000 prize for her work, which combines found footage with the cinematic traditions of post-revolutionary Iran. Her 2020 film Irani Bag used a split-screen technique to show how handbags were often deployed in films as stand-ins for human touch. The censorship of intimacy is a theme through Tafakory’s work – from the abstract, non-linear narrative film Nazarbazi (2022) to the following year’s Mast-del, which explored a forbidden relationship between two women.