Five years in the making, Nauzanin Knight’s award-winning documentary tells an extraordinary story of courage and resistance. Now, after earning international recognition and reaching audiences around the world, The Forbidden University is coming to Richmond Hill for a special red-carpet screening on November 26.
For Canadian writer, director and producer Nauzanin Knight, bringing The Forbidden University to the screen has been a journey of determination, creative ambition and deeply personal commitment.
Along the way, the BSO has supported her professional development through delegations to Content London, Berlinale and TIFF, as well as the Diversity of Voices initiative at the Banff World Media Festival.
“BSO has given me so many opportunities to grow as a filmmaker and entrepreneur, expand my professional networks, and gain valuable insights into the industry,” says Knight.
She has also contributed to BSO’s Edmonton filmmaker roundtable and Anti-Black Racism Policy Framework Project Working Group, and invited BSO CEO Joan Jenkinson to speak at the CONNECT-HIRE industry event organized by her nonprofit, BE Collective.
“BSO has helped create a sense of community and belonging in an industry that can sometimes feel difficult to navigate, particularly for filmmakers from underrepresented communities.”
A university that refused to disappear
The Forbidden University tells the remarkable true story of the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), an underground university established in Iran after members of the Bahá’í community were systematically denied access to higher education because of their religious beliefs.
For more than four decades, Bahá’ís, Iran’s largest non-Muslim religious minority, have faced restrictions on their right to study. In response, the community created its own university, transforming homes into classrooms and risking arrest and imprisonment to keep education alive.
For Knight, who is half Iranian and a member of the Bahá’í faith, the story is deeply personal.
“Our own friends and family members have been persecuted, interrogated, imprisoned, and had their homes raided by government agents in Iran,” she explains.
“Not just as a Bahá’í, and not just as an Iranian, but as a human being, I felt it was both my duty and my honour to tell this story.”
An ambitious film, five years in the making
Bringing these stories to the screen presented enormous challenges. Filming in Iran was impossible, and Knight had to ensure that participating in the documentary would not endanger interviewees or their families.
Working with two-time Academy Award-nominated visual effects artist and executive producer Habib Zargarpour, she turned to virtual production technology to recreate locations in Iran during the 1990s and early 2000s.
The team combined dramatic performances with sophisticated digital environments and a painterly animation treatment inspired by oil paintings. The finished film contains more than 300 visual-effects shots spanning over 45 minutes, an extraordinary undertaking for an independent documentary.
One particularly tense moment came when Iqan, a key participant who had served five years in prison in Iran because of his Bahá’í faith, struggled to obtain a visa to travel from the UK to Canada for filming.
With the production deadline approaching, the team sought assistance from Members of Parliament. Just weeks before filming, his visa was approved.
“After everything he had endured, it meant so much to have him there with us, sharing his story in his own words,” Knight recalls.
Another unforgettable moment came when former BIHE students, some of whom had not seen each other since leaving Iran, were reunited on camera in Edmonton. Their emotional reactions were entirely genuine.
From independent film to international recognition
Executive produced by Zargarpour and actor Penn Badgley, The Forbidden University has been acquired by Espresso Media International for international sales and GOOD DOCS for educational distribution.
The documentary received the Best Alberta Film Award at NorthwestFest and the Innovation Award at CaribbeanTales, and earned two Rosie Award nominations. It is also reaching audiences through educational and public library collections across North America.
At community screenings in Ottawa and Chicago, venues were packed, with some audience members sitting on the floor or standing to watch. In Ottawa, the filmmakers received a standing ovation.
For Knight, the most meaningful response comes when audience members ask how they can bring the film to their own communities.
“They become protagonists in this cause,” she says.
Additional screenings are planned in Los Angeles, Highland Park, London in the UK and Tucson, Arizona.
An unexpected journey into filmmaking
Knight’s path into filmmaking was unconventional. She studied psychology before earning a master’s degree at University College London in countering organized crime and terrorism. Her research led to a nonfiction book examining the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran.
After three years of service at the Bahá’í World Centre, she decided to pursue filmmaking as a way to contribute to positive change.
Returning to Canada, she founded 1844 Studios with her mother, Mitra Knight, and immersed herself in learning the business of filmmaking through industry events, professional development and hands-on experience.
“Producing my first film was probably the best film school I could have attended (and cheaper than going to film school, too!),” she says.
A special screening in Richmond Hill
The Forbidden University comes to the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts on Thursday, November 26, 2026, at 7:00 p.m., for a red-carpet screening followed by a Q&A and panel discussion with the filmmakers and four participants from the documentary.
Richmond Hill’s significant Iranian diaspora community makes it a particularly meaningful setting for the event.
Knight hopes audiences will leave inspired to raise awareness and speak up for the right to education.
“Ultimately, I hope people leave the theatre feeling that this is not simply a story about a community in Iran, but a story about a fundamental human right that belongs to all of us, and one that we all have a role in protecting.”
After five years of work, The Forbidden University is reaching audiences far beyond the communities whose stories it tells. And for Nauzanin Knight, the journey continues.
See The Forbidden University
Thursday, November 26, 2026 | 7:00 p.m.
Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts
Red-carpet screening followed by a filmmaker Q&A and panel discussion.
Watch the trailer | Film website | Behind-the-scenes featurette
Congratulations to Nauzanin and the entire filmmaking team on this achievement!
Photo credit: MH Photography, 2026
