Staff Picks
24 Films: A Cinematic Visa to Iran
- Keith B.
- Friday, May 24, 2019
Collection
Journey into the richness of Iranian cinema with this selection of films by renowned directors Abbas Kiarostami, Asghar Farhadi, Jafar Panahi and others.
Encounter the humanity and traditions of people often considered abstractly and politically on newscasts accompanied by the frantic drumbeat of war.
Several of these directors made acclaimed films set outside of Iran, their talent translating across cultural and political borders.
About Elly
Published in 2015
With the return of their friend Ahmad from Germany, a group of old college pals decide to reunite of a weekend by the Caspian Sea. The fun starts right away as they quickly catch on the plan of lively Sepideh, who has brought along Elly, her daughter's kindergarten teacher, in hopes of setting her up with recently divorced Ahmad. But seemingly trivial lies, which start accumulating at the seashore, suddenly swing round and come back full force when one afternoon Elly suddenly vanishes.
About Elly
Published in 2015
With the return of their friend Ahmad from Germany, a group of old college pals decide to reunite of a weekend by the Caspian Sea. The fun starts right away as they quickly catch on the plan of lively Sepideh, who has brought along Elly, her daughter's kindergarten teacher, in hopes of setting her up with recently divorced Ahmad. But seemingly trivial lies, which start accumulating at the seashore, suddenly swing round and come back full force when one afternoon Elly suddenly vanishes.
Baran
Published in 2002
The story of illegal Afghan immigrants living and working at a construction site in Tehran, Iran. When one of the workers is injured, his daughter, posing as a man, becomes the breadwinner. But a hot-headed 17 year-old local youth also working at the site discovers the secret.
Baran =
Rain
Published in 2001
In a Tehran building site, 17-year-old Lateef's coworker falls from the building and the worker's son, Rahmat, enters the scene to become the new provider for his family. As Lateef is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, it's not until it's revealed that Rahmat is actually a young woman posing as a man, that both of their lives are forever changed! A humorous, moving love story of the most romantic kind.
Certified Copy
Published in 2012
What seems at first to be a straightforward tale of two people getting to know each other over the course of an afternoon gradually reveals itself as something richer, stranger, and trickier: a mind-bending reflection on authenticity, in art as well as in relationships. Both cerebrally and emotionally engaging, reminds us that love itself is an enigma.
Certified Copy
Published in 2012
What seems at first to be a straightforward tale of two people getting to know each other over the course of an afternoon gradually reveals itself as something richer, stranger, and trickier: a mind-bending reflection on authenticity, in art as well as in relationships. Both cerebrally and emotionally engaging, reminds us that love itself is an enigma.
Children of Heaven
Published in 1999
A young boy, Ali, loses his sister Zahra's school shoes. In order to stay out of trouble, the two come up with a plan to share Ali's shoes, but they must keep it a secret from their parents.
Close-up
Published in 2010
The arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated well-known filmmaker, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence. Real people from the case play themselves. Includes commentary, featurette, a documentary on Hossein Sabzian, interviews, a booklet, and more.
The Cow
Published in 2004
In a small village in Iran, Hassan cherishes his cow more than anything in the world but, while he is away, the cow mysteriously dies and the villagers try to convince Hassan that she has only wandered off. The griefstricken Hassan begins to believe that he is the cow.
Crimson Gold
Published in 2004
Behind the headline of a murder and a suicide, lies the story of a lonely man whose deep feelings of humiliation push him over the edge.
The Day I Became a Woman
Published in 2005
Three portraits of women at three stages of life in Iran, including a nine-year-old girl told she can no longer play with boys because she is now a "woman", a young woman who enters a bicycle race against her husband's wishes, and an old woman who gains money and the freedom to do what she wishes with it. Special features include text of the director's statement, interview, and filmography.
Everybody Knows
Published in 2019
Laura and her children travel from Buenos Aires to the small Spanish village where she was born to attend her sister's wedding. Unexpected events soon lead to a crisis that exposes the family's hidden past. Suspicions mount, loved ones begin to turn on one another, and dark secrets long hidden threaten to come to light, revealing shocking truths.
Fireworks Wednesday
Published in 2018
From the Academy Award winning director of A Separation and About Elly, Asghar Farhadi’s FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY is a dramatic story of marital intrigue and betrayal set against the backdrop of the Persian New Year.. Rouhi, a young bride-to-be, is hired as a housemaid for an affluent family in Tehran. Upon arriving she is immediately thrust into an explosive domestic conflict. The wife, Mojdeh, is convinced her husband is having an affair with a recently divorced woman living next door and enlists Rouhi as a spy, to follow her husband, and confirm her suspicions. What Rouhi discovers threatens not only the couple’s marriage but her own hopes for a happy future.. Nominated for the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.. "Mournful, enigmatic and compulsively engrossing, FIREWORKS WEDNESDAY gives viewers a chance to watch a master at work - before he was acknowledged as a master." - Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
Fireworks Wednesday
Published in 2008
All of Tehran is preparing to celebrate the traditional New Year with the festival of fire, which falls on the last Tuesday night before the official New Year begins. A young woman named Rouhi is employed by a young couple to clean their house. Sweet and naive, Rouhi is engaged to be married, but her innocence is shattered when she finds her employers' household in crisis over accusations of infidelity.
Gabbeh
The Silence
Published in 2018
One of the preeminent figures of Iranian cinema, Mohsen Makhmalbaf has written and directed an impressive array of acclaimed films, winning accolades at international film festivals and the admiration of world cinema audiences. This collection presents three of Makhmalbaf's most lyrical films which the director has termed his Poetic Trilogy,
Hamoun
Published in 2004
Hamoun is a psychological comedy/drama about a bumbling Iranian intellectual, Hamid Hamoun. Trying and failing to complete a philosophical tract on love, Hamoun cannot seem to convince his wife Mashid, who is a successful artist, to love him either. Hamoun's refusal to accept reality, or grant Mashid a divorce, is both character study and metaphor for a condition of modern urban life in Iran. In 1997, Hamoun was voted the best Iranian film ever made by a survey of Iranian film critics. The Cow had previously held that honor.
Hamoun
Published in 2004
The story of Hamid Hamoun, an executive in a large import-export business, who also works as a part-time English instructor. He feels alienated from Iranian society, bound by its conventions yet unwilling to abide by its rigid laws. His wife wants to divorce him but is unable to do so under Islamic law. In this film, husband and wife struggle to find their own solid ground.
The House is Black
Published in 1962
In the 1960s, lionized poet Forough Farrokhzad directed her first and only film. It depicts the lives and bodies of people tragically deformed by leprosy. This is a film of stirring and powerful images, and a beautiful, tragically poetic narration. In Farsi with English subtitles.
Kandahar
Published in 2003
Nafas, an Afghan-born Canadian journalist, returns to her homeland in a desperate attempt to reach her sister, who, overcome with grief after being injured by a landmine and her despair over the Taliban's oppression of women, has vowed that she will commit suicide at the time of the next solar eclipse, only three days away.
Like Someone in Love
A Film
Published in 2014
Over a period of two days, a young prostitute and a widower develop an unexpected connection.
No One Knows About Persian Cats
Published in 2011
Follows a pair of young musicians, recently released from prison, on a mission to take their rock band to Europe. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan their escape abroad with a fast-talking music promoter. Vowing to play one last show before leaving Tehran, their dangerous mission takes them on a free-wheeling journey through the city's vibrant and diverse underground scene, home to an estimated 2,000 illegal independent bands.
The Salesman
Published in 2017
While both participating in a production of Death of a Salesman, a teacher's wife is assaulted in her new home, which leaves him determined to find the perpetrator over his wife's traumatized objections.
The Salesman
Published in 2017
The story of a couple whose relationship begins to turn sour during their performance of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
A Separation
Published in 2012
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
A Separation
Published in 2012
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Taste of Cherry
Published in 1999
Mr. Badii, ceaselessly driving through the red-brown hills around Tehran in search of assistance in his suicide, receives from each of the men he asks for help a viewpoint on life.
Taxi
Published in 2015
Jafar Panahi drives a yellow cab through the vibrant streets of Tehran, picking up a diverse group of passengers in a single day. Each man, woman, and child candidly expresses his or her own view of the world while being interviewed by the curious and gracious driver.
This is Not a Film.
Published in 2014
This clandestine documentary, shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, depicts the day-to-day life of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi (Offside, The circle) during his house arrest in his Tehran apartment. While appealing his sentence - six years in prison and a 20 year ban from filmmaking - Panahi is seen talking to his family and lawyer on the phone, discussing his plight with Mirtahmasb and reflecting on the meaning of the art of filmmaking.
This is Not a Film
Published in 2012
This clandestine documentary, shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes, depicts the day-to-day life of acclaimed director Jafar Panahi (Offside, The Circle) during his house arrest in his Tehran apartment. While appealing his sentence, six years in prison and a 20 year ban from filmmaking, Panahi is seen talking to his family and lawyer on the phone, discussing his plight with Mirtahmasb.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Published in 2016
Palme d'Or winning-director Abbas Kiarostami’s acclaimed film documents the arrival of an engineer and his colleagues from Tehran in a remote village in Iranian Kurdistan. Assumed by the locals with whom they form an ambivalent relationship to be archaeologists or telecom engineers, the visitors’ behavior and keen interest in the health of an ailing old woman appear strange and their true motives are shrouded in mystery. Haunting and visually stunning, The Wind Will Carry Us is an absorbing abstract meditation on life and death and the divisions between tradition and modernity that stands among Kiarostami s best works..
The Wind Will Carry Us
Published in 2014
When an engineer and his colleagues from Tehran arrive in a remote village in Iranian Kurdistan, the locals assume they are archaeologists or telecom engineers. Even though they form an ambivalent relationship with the community, the visitors' behavior and keen interest in the health of an ailing old woman appear strange, and their true motives are shrouded in mystery.
Women Without Men
Published in 2017
Renowned visual artist Shirin Neshat offers an exquisitely crafted view of women rights today in Iran as compared to Iran in 1953, when a British- and American-backed coup removed the democratically elected government. The film was adapted from the novel by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur and weaves together the stories of four individual women during those traumatic days, whose experiences are shaped by their faith and the social structures in place...Awards & Festivals:..Venice Film Festival- Silver Lion Award for Directing ..Toronto International Film Festival - Special Presentation