Iran

  • Abbas Kiarostami – Dow Rahehal Baraye yek Massaleh AKA Two Solutions for One Problem (1975)

    Drama1971-1980Abbas KiarostamiIranShort Film

    Quote:
    Two young boys are classmates: when Nader returns his friend’s notebook, the cover of which he has accidentally torn, the other is faced with two possibilities. Either he can quickly take revenge, or the two can look for a solution together, glue the book back together and remain good pals.Read More »

  • Abbas Kiarostami – Lebassi Baraye Arossi AKA Wedding Suit (1976)

    1971-1980Abbas KiarostamiArthouseDramaIran

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    لباسی برای عروسی

    A woman orders a suit from a tailor for her young son to wear to her sister’s wedding. The tailor’s apprentice, together with two other teenage boys who work in the same building, devise a plan to try on the suit at night to see what it feels like. Things get a little complicated but in the morning, at the last possible minute, they manage to return the suit to its proper place.Read More »

  • Jafar Panahi – Dayereh AKA The Circle [+extras] (2000)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaIranJafar Panahi

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    Synopsis:
    In a Tehran hospital, a woman awaits anxiously for news about her grandchild – and she’s shattered when she learns that the baby is a girl. Outside the hospital are three young women – they’re anxious, fearful – and their attempts to leave the city are constantly thwarted. One of them, Nargess, tries unsuccessfully to make contact with her friend, Pari, who is recently out of prison and has been thrown out of her family home. Pregnant and desperate, Pari seeks help from Monir, a friend married to a Pakistani doctor.

    In addition to these frightened, disenfranchised women we meet Nayereh, who is forced to abandon her little girl, and Mojgan, a prostitute. As the story spirals from one character to another, it eventually turns full circle. Read More »

  • Abbas Kiarostami – Roads of Kiarostami (2006)

    2001-2010Abbas KiarostamiArthouseDocumentaryIran

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    جاده‌های کیارستمی

    Abbas Kiarostami has recently been exhibiting his black-and-white landscape photographs at venues around the world, and Roads of Kiarostami is both a companion piece to these exhibits and an extension of them. Static shots of his photos alternate with footage of Kiarostami’s car winding through mountain roads, as the Iranian filmmaker muses in voice-over on the significance of the journey and on the path of his work and Persian literature as a whole.Read More »

  • Amir Naderi – Tangna AKA Strait (1973)

    1971-1980Amir NaderiCrimeIran

    Naderi’s second film is set in the slums of Tehran. Hanging out in a pool hall, Ali Khoshdast becomes involved in a brawl with three brothers, and accidently kills one of them. He runs for his life, eventually taking refuge in the home of a young woman. The victim’s brothers continue the chase, and finally close in on him. Following the murder, streets, alleys and houses that were all part of Ali’s everyday world suddenly become dangerous and hostile. Although in many ways a classic tale of revenge, Naderi uses this story to imply that an underlying violence pervades society, ready to burst forth with or without justification.Read More »

  • Dariush Mehrjui – Hamoun (1990)

    1981-1990ArthouseDariush MehrjuiDramaIran

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Hamoon’s wife is leaving him. He is also unsuccessfully trying to finish his Ph.D. thesis. He is forced to reexamine his life. In a series of flashbacks and dreams, Hamoon tries to figure out what he did wrong.Read More »

  • Samira Makhmalbaf – Sib AKA The Apple (1998)

    1991-2000DramaIranSamira MakhmalbafThe Female Gaze

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    Quote:
    This unusual Iranian documentary/drama is based on the true story of a poor and religious 65-year-old father who kept his two 12-year-old daughters locked in their small house from the day that they were born. Their blind mother agreed with the arrangement since she was unable to supervise them in any other way. Thanks to the concern of neighbors over the plight of Massoumeh and Zahra, a social worker looked into the matter and found the girls unable to talk or walk properly. They were given the first baths in their lives and then returned to their home. The father, believing that he has been publicly shamed by his neighbors, promises not to keep them imprisoned anymore.Read More »

  • Rakhshan Banietemad – Nargess (1992)

    Drama1991-2000IranRakhshan Banietemad

    Quote:
    A sharp-edged look at people who live outside the constraints of Islamic law. In her fourth feature, director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad tells the tragic story of a love triangle. Afagh, an aging thief who has lost her beauty, is on the verge of losing her young lover, Adel. When Adel meets the beautiful Nargess, he decides to go straight, but honest work does not come easily, and he decides to go back to the old life for one last job. “Bani-Etemad pushes the Iranian censorship code to the limit, managing to make her outsider characters believable and moving” (Deborah Young, Variety).Read More »

  • Jalal Moghadam – Farar az Taleh AKA Escape From The Trap (1971)

    1971-1980CrimeDramaIranJalal Moghadam

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    A great Iranian film , unfortunately unknown in and out of Iran, 23 April 2008
    Author: Armand Erfanian from United Kingdom

    *** This review may contain spoilers ***

    Farar az Tale is an unknown film out of Iran. Even in Iran nobody remembers of this beautiful little masterpiece. There are so many successful visual and musical devices all along the film. The first one is just at the opening and before the opening credits. A man is dropped on the street. Another man tries to see if he is still alive. In finding that he is not, he turns his head towards Morteza (Behrooz Vosooghi) and by his eye expression lets him know that. All that in silent cinema and taking only 23 seconds. That is truly cinema, The art of image! Then the opening credits start, during which we see Morteza in prison, his moustaches are little by little growing. This is economy of great cinema. Using the time of the credits for letting us know that he is in prison and making us feel the length of his stay. The proper plot will begin now, when he comes out of prison and looks for his beloved woman Mehri (Nilufar). Another great moment of the film is when Morteza is looking for a solution to find somehow the 10 000 tomans that he needs to give to the man who married his beloved to get her divorce. Now wandering in the city and its outskirts he walks, stops and sits and looks at people working. Great music of Rubik Mansuri covers this sequence, and still shots or pans get dissolved to each other and gives us impression of boring time that Morteza is experiencing under the hot sun of the South. Iranian cinema is full of so great films… It is a pity that they don’t get any chance to be known… The actors, Behrooz Vosooghi, Davood Rashidi and Abbas Nazeri are absolutely great.Read More »

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