“What is the difference between one body and another? A person is a person.”
These lines, spoken by the protagonist of the film “Burial Permit,” Omid, are a timely plea for a more equal world.
Written and directed by Hashem Aliakbari and produced by Ghazal Mojtahedi, “Burial Permit” tells the story of Omid, an Iranian man who navigates bureaucracy, grief, and gender inequality as he attempts to bury his mother.
Aliakbari and Mojtahedi, who in addition to being collaborators are married to each other, say that working together deepens their bond. Now Baltimore residents, they are both from Tehran, Iran, and met while working on a TV series. The couple’s strong connection was exemplified by their unified voice throughout our interview as well as Mojtahedi’s ability to seamlessly translate Aliakbari’s thoughts to English.
“After we got married, our collaboration became stronger and more meaningful,” says Aliakbari. “We have the same goals. We don’t need long discussions for every decision. We understand each other.”
Though they find themselves pursuing their goal in a new country after immigrating to the United States, Aliakbari and Mojtahedi see similarities between Tehran and Baltimore that make them feel at home here. Specifically, they say that some neighborhoods and streets here feel exactly the same as ones in Tehran. And even with the differences that do exist between the two cities, to them there is an unmistakable familiarity here in Baltimore.
Though they find themselves pursuing their goal in a new country after immigrating to the United States, Aliakbari and Mojtahedi see similarities between Tehran and Baltimore that make them feel at home here.
“It’s true, [there are] different buildings, different people, but still the same vibe,” said Mojtahedi.
“Burial Permit” offers audiences a chance to experience a similar connection by sharing Omid’s story and highlighting themes such as gender inequality, immigration, and grief, which transcend geographical boundaries.
Omid, a name of Persian origin, means “hope” and represents optimism for the possibility of societal change, according to Aliakbari. Throughout the film, Omid questions the status quo in Iran. Specifically, he challenges the bureaucratic process that prevents his mother from being buried in a Muslim cemetery without her conversion to Islam being verified through sworn testimony from three people, and the law that dictates that a woman’s testimony is worth half of a man’s.
Omid’s mother is never named, which was an artistic choice made by Aliakbari to convey the universality of gender issues and the invisibility of women in legal systems.
“This woman could be anyone. Any woman … It’s a global issue. It’s universal,” said Aliakbari.
Even though Omid’s mother and the other women in “Burial Permit” are unnamed, they play an indispensable role in the film’s narrative.
Omid’s mother’s death provides the catalyst for the entire story. When Omid faces challenges while trying to bury her, his wife directly questions the administrator at the Muslim cemetery’s assertion about the value of a woman’s testimony by asking, “Why? Is it because I’m a woman? Are my body and heart worth less than yours?”
This dissonance between the namelessness of the female characters and their central role in both the story and in society appears to be an underlying theme of the film.
“Burial Permit” was featured at this year’s Maryland Film Festival, which marked a return to the Parkway Theatre for the couple’s work. In 2024, their animated film “Passport Tale,” which focused on similar themes of immigration and bureaucracy, was projected on the theatre’s exterior as part of its “Windows on North + Charles” exhibition. This year, Aliakbari and Mojtahedi’s motion graphic highlighting Persian carpets, “When Carpets Dance,” was featured in the same exhibition.
Both Aliakbari and Mojtahedi were happy to see that two other short films from Iran (“To Be” and “Pufferfish”) were selected for this year’s Maryland Film Festival as well. They also noted that they received positive feedback from members of the local film community and they appreciated the opportunity the festival created for potential future collaborations.
In addition to the Maryland Film Festival, “Burial Permit” was selected for presentation at Turkey’s Golden Bridge Istanbul Short Film Festival in October of this year, and will also be shown at Azerbaijan’s Baku Film Festival this month, as well as at The Bay International Film Festival in Morecambe, England, in January 2026.
Fittingly for a film that has been selected for film festivals in several countries, “Burial Permit” had an international creation process.
Aliakbari shared, “The preproduction and the production happened in Iran, but the postproduction happened between the US and Iran.”
The film took just two weeks to produce, and the swift process was aided by Aliakbari’s connections with people in Iran’s film community. Mojtahedi subtitled the film in English in the United States, and the couple virtually worked with Aliakbari’s brother, Hamed Aliakbari, a film editor, and other collaborators based in Iran to create the final cut.
The universality of the themes in “Burial Permit” has shown up in audience reactions during Q&A sessions and interactions following viewings. Aliakbari and Mojtahedi shared stories such as a Christian woman letting them know about a similar experience she had involving her own mother and an audience member from India having similar experiences to Omid while battling bureaucracy there. They reflected that though they believed stories like the one presented in “Burial Permit” were common experiences, hearing feedback from audience members confirmed and expanded their sense of the film’s relatability.
In addition to providing a nuanced depiction of life in Iran, “Burial Permit” serves as a call to action for audiences across the world to challenge the unjust systems in our lives that we can often let go unchecked.
“We want [the] audience to think about how many systems in the world that we simply accept as normal, but they are not fair. They are unfair and outdated,” Aliakbari said. “We want to leave the audience with the idea that things can be different.”