marieclaire.com.au 81PHOTOGRAPHED BY KELLY KLINE; GETTY IMAGES; DARREN TIESTE. TEXT BY HELEN BARLOW; HANNAH-ROSE YEE. *NIJ.GOV/TOPICS/CORRECTIONS/RECIDIVISM/PAGES/WELCOME.ASPX. †GLOBALSLAVERYINDEX.ORG/COUNTRY/CAMBODIAMC FACT Cambodia is ranked^3 out of 167 countries on the Global Slavery Index, behind North Korea and Uzbekistan.
†In a world where celebrities can be
a tad dull, Iranian actress Golshifteh
Farahani stands out. She’s a defiant
woman, who shaved her head as a
16-year-old so she could pass as a boy
on the streets of Tehran, spoke out
about her restrictive home country (“I
wasn’t what Iranian society wanted me
to be: a good girl,” she has said), and
appeared nude in a French magazine.
The only problem is Farahani’s
nationality. The actress was a big star
in Iran until she was banned from
further film work for not wearing a
headscarf at the premiere of Body Of
Lies (starring Leonardo DiCaprio).
She fled to France, where she has lived
on and off for the past eight years.
But once she appeared nude in that
magazine she knew she could never
return to her homeland.
Does she regret the nudity? “I
never regret anything, because it wasgood at the time,” says the 33-year-old
actress. “When I look back at all the
horrific things that happened to me,
from the exile to the interrogations to
the difficulties of embracing another
culture, I realise it was all for the good.”
Her country factors in her new
film, indie auteur Jim Jarmusch’s
Paterson. A hit at the recent Cannes
and Toronto film festivals, Farahani
plays Laura, the wife of Adam Driver’s
poetic bus driver protagonist.
“My character is making cupcakes
and painting curtains – turning being a
housewife into art,” says Farahani. “On
some of the curtains there is Persian
poetry, which I wrote with bleach. And
you have photos of my grandparents
and photos of me and my brother in
the scene. When I first saw the movie
I was so moved that we brought a
piece of Iran into Jim Jarmusch’s film.”
Paterson is in cinemas now.ON THE GROUND
Actress Danielle Cormack has traded film
sets for a charitable mission in South-East
Asia to help underprivileged childrenSince heading to
Cambodia earlier this
year, Danielle Cormack
has been swamped with
requests for travel tips
and advice. Unfortunately,
she doesn’t have that many
to give. “I went off the
beaten track,” laughs
Cormack. “It was not your
tourist Cambodia.”
As an ambassador for
global charity ChildFund,
the Wentworth star was on
the ground to witness the
work the organisation does,
overseeing child-specific
literacy, sanitation and
health projects. While
there, Cormack was able to
help distribute some of the
Gifts for Good products,
such as bikes and readinglamps, donated by
Australians to children in
the impoverished nation.
The actress, 46,
has been a ChildFund
ambassador for more than
eight years. She’s very
passionate about child
sponsorship, sponsoring
two herself. “Your money
is not just going to that
child, it’s going to a whole
community,” she explains.
“I’m a mother to a six-
year-old,” adds Cormack.
“And every morning I get
him off to school, pack his
lunch, take him to tennis or
swimming ... Some families
don’t have that privilege.
I believe that every
child should have
those opportunities.”CAMBODIA
IRAN
A STAR IS BORN
Golshifteh Farahani was exiled from her
home country for being too provocative. Now
the actress fights for freedom through filmGolshifteh
Farahani as
Laura in new
movie Paterson.