Exiled Iranian Singer Performs With Nova Survivor Yuval Raphael at Haifa Film Festival Opening
by Shiryn Ghermezian
Singer Gola joins hundreds of people protesting the Islamic regime in Iran at a demonstration marking the 45th anniversary of the revolution, Washington, DC, Feb. 10, 2024. Photo: Allison Bailey via Reuters Connect
Iranian singer and actress Gola took to the stage at the opening of the 42nd Haifa International Film Festival on Saturday night and performed with Nova festival survivor Yuval Raphael the ballad “New Day Will Rise.”
The song shares a message of hope for Israelis following the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Raphael originally sang “New Day Will Rise” in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest, where she finished in second place. The original song features lyrics in Hebrew, English, and French, but lyrics in Farsi were added for the performance at the Haifa Film Festival.
Raphael was at the Nova Music Festival in Israel when it was attacked on Oct. 7, 2023. She hid in a roadside bomb shelter near the site of the festival and laid beneath dead bodies of victims, pretending to be dead for several hours, until she was rescued. She has talked publicly about her experience during the massacre several times, including in a speech given before the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Gola, whose full name is Golazin Ardestani, was a member of Iran’s only, all-female band Orchid. Because of strict rules in the country, the band was only allowed to perform privately to female audiences. After being arrested three times by Iran’s morality police for challenging the national dress code, she fled her home country in 2011 to freely pursue her music career. In 2018, Gola founded her own record label Zan Recordings, which focuses on empowering female artists. The UK-based singer and political activist talked on Sunday about performing with Raphael at the Haifa International Film Festival.
“Last night’s performance was very symbolic for me. … Yuval’s story is very important, and it’s a story of many people in Israel, and I really love the song because it has a message of hope,” Gola said, according to The Jerusalem Post. “We performed it in four languages: English, French, Hebrew, and Iranian (Farsi), and I really enjoyed this performance. I think our performance shows that we are all human beings and at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter where we come from or what our religion is. It shows that, to win, we need to get together and be united and love each other as human beings.”
Gola stars in the film “Mortician,” which was screened at the Haifa International Film Festival last year. Set in Canada, the film from exiled Iranian director Abdolreza Kahani follows an encounter between an Iranian mortician and an exiled Iranian singer, played by Gola, which forces them both to confront questions about life and death, faith and protest. The film is partly based on Gola’s own life.
A lifetime achievement award was presented to director Avi Nesher at the opening of the 42nd Haifa International Film Festival and his film “Our Loves,” was chosen to open the festival. “Our Loves” made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Watch Gola and Yuval Raphael perform “New Day Will Rise” at the 42nd Haifa International Film Festival in the video below.
