For the past year, Sandra, her husband Samuel, and their eleven-year-old son Daniel have lived a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead in the snow below their chalet, the police question whether he was murdered or committed suicide. Samuel’s suspicious death is presumed murder, and Sandra becomes the main suspect. What follows is not just an investigation into the circumstances of Samuel’s death but an unsettling psychological journey into the depths of Sandra and Samuel’s conflicted relationship.

Winner: Palme D’Or- 2023 Cannes Film FestivalRead More »

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Set against the stunning landscape of rural Iran, Shirak is a symbolic rural drama centered on a young boy who lives in a small agricultural village that is being terrorized by wild boars. When his father is mauled to death by the boars during an attack on one of the village fields, Shirak suddenly finds himself the head of the household. Determined to hunt down the dangerous animals and kill them, he picks dates in order to be able to purchase a watchdog from one of the local villagers. Together, Shirak and his dog confront the beasts when they attack the village. While filming Shirak in 1988, his eleventh film, Mehrjui observed, ‘I can remark that this film is different from my other works. Read More »

Two brothers are involved in a dispute over a house in urban Tehran. It is only through a series of adventures with the tenants that they are able to settle their differences.Read More »

The School We Went To based on a story by Fereydoon Doostdar and Dariush Mehrjui and starring Ali Nassirian. Plot Summary: At the Justice on the Horizons School everything turns on bullying and threats from the school principal. The students are unhappy about this situation and they complain about it in the Wall newspaper. The principal is frightened about the opening of the eyes and ears of the students and he shuts down the Wall. The students protest and with the cooperation of the literature teacher they persuade the principal to agree to the remounting of the Wall newspaper. Some people have seen the film as an allegory for the 1978 Iranian revolution while others have criticized it as propaganda driven more by the Islamic regime than by Mehrjui.Read More »

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While on the surface Mr. Gullible contains all the hallmarks of a good comedy, at its heart this movie portrays with uncommon clarity the pitfalls of love and the pain of betrayal. When the protagonist leaves his small village and travels to Tehran to find a wife, he does so with all the gusto and naivete of one who has not experienced the world. Yet even when Mr. Gullible encounters some of the harsh realities of the big city, he is not dissuaded from accomplishing his mission to find a bride. When he finally meets what he believes is the perfect woman, Mr Gullible showers her with gifts and asks her to marry him. However, his romantic visions of life with his lady love are obliterated when he discovers her true identity. Festivals/Awards: Special Jury Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival, 1971; Best film, best direction, best screenplay, best actress, best supporting actor at the Third National Film Festival Sepas, 1971.Read More »

This highly symbolic Iranian drama (shot in black-and-white) revolves around the most important figure in a remote rural village. That figure is the village’s sole cow, owned by Mashdi Hassan (Ezat Entezani). The beginning of the film makes clear just how vital the cow is to the life of the village and how much Mashdi and his neighbors cherish it. When the cow is threatened and then killed by members of a nearby clan, Mashdi becomes so distraught that he is gradually transformed into a cow himself. One highlight of this film is the glimpse it offers into a style of rural life which has gone unchanged for thousands of years.Read More »

This is the third film based on a story by Lajos Biro and Jules G. Furthman. The first two were silent films, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Whispering Chorus in 1918, and The Way of All Flesh in 1927. In this melodrama, Paul Kriza (Akim Tamiroff), a respectable bank cashier, leaves his wife Anna (Gladys George) and their children to seek greater fortunes in the big city. But instead of making his mark, he makes a mess of his prospects, and he ends up destitute. Ashamed to face his family, he remains in the city, and is presumed to be dead.Read More »

Time Out Film Guide wrote:
An exceptionally beautiful movie set among Thailand’s Muslim minority in villages near the Malaysian border, and centering on a bright teenage kid forced to drop out of school and support his family by turning small-time smuggler. Impossible to convey its qualities without falling back on turn-off words like ‘charm’ and ‘sensitivity’, but the fact is that it succeeds in evoking the trials, terrors and excitements of childhood with an immediacy that’s both sweet and tough. There’s an eye-opening blend of universal and local elements: trouble with punks at a rock concert, daredevil feats on the roof of a moving train. And it offers the joy of seeing a director in full control of his medium. (Tony Rayns)Read More »

This Spanish Giallo/ thriller was distributed in the United States as Death Haunts Mónica, an apt enough title until one realizes how much else is haunting the poor broad. Murder, mayhem, kinky Sapphic encounters, and risqué bathing behavior are just a few of the elements in Ramon Fernandez’s off-the-wall romp, which features no fewer than three European beauties.Read More »