A few years ago, Mitra Farahani had an idea. Could she engineer the encounter of two great filmmakers who, although they belong to the same generation, have never met in person: Jean-Luc Godard, the Swiss master who needs no introduction, and the lesser known Ebrahim Golestan, whose literary and film work is the bedrock of modern Iranian culture – two hermits of cinema’s technical and political revolution.Read More »
“In the spring of 1958, in the region of Khuzestan, at the heart of the Iranian oil industry and of Persian civilization, an oil well explodes during a drilling. The eruption is endless; the fire is powerful, indestructible, and gigantic. It is a dragon. In any case, that is how it is presented in A Fire.” (Stéfani de Loppinot, Cinéma 07)Read More »
A beautiful short by the Iranian director about the archaelogical excavations in the area of the Marlik hills. Narrated by Golestan, the film features a reflective voice-over text exploring the lives, hopes and myths of the people who once lived there and who live there today. A very lyrical film, and a small masterpiece.Read More »
The Hills of Marlik (1963, 15 min.) beautifully and suggestively documents archaeological excavations.
Directed and narrated by Ebrahim Golestan.Read More »
Hashem (Zakariya Hashemi) is a cab driver who finds an infant child in the back seat of his cab one night after he gives a ride to a young woman. Hashem and his girlfriend, Taji (Taji Ahmadi), try to cope with this unwanted child. Hashem insists on getting rid of the child, Taji on keeping him.Read More »
From Village Voice: In 1962, beloved and controversial poetess Forugh Farrokhzad went to Azerbaijan and made this short film on the grounds of a leper colony, presaging in 22 minutes the entirety of the Iranian new wave and the international quasi-genre of “poetic nonfiction.” It’s a blackjack of a movie, soberly documenting the village of lost ones with an astringently ethical eye, freely orchestrating scenes and simply capturing others, while on the soundtrack Farrokhzad reads her own poetry in a plaintive murmur—this in the same year as Vivre sa Vie and La Jetée. (Chris Marker has long been a passionate fan, as has Abbas Kiarostami, whose The Wind Will Carry Us owes its title and climactic verse to Farrokhzad.) It was the only substantial piece of cinema Farrokhzad ever made. Five years later, having already attained near legendary status in Iran for her writing, she was killed in a car crash at the age of 32, guaranteeing her posthumous fame as a feminist touchstone for generations of angry Persian women.Read More »
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The Ghost Valley’s Treasure Mysteries (in Persian: اسرار گنج دره جنی, transliterated as Asrar-e Ganj-e Darre-ye Jenni), also known as “The Secrets of the Treasure of the Jinn Valley”, is a 1974 satirical comedy Iranian film, directed by Ebrahim Golestan. It was released by Golestan Films, and was Golestan’s last feature film in Iran. Using symbolic language, the director was accused of having the Shah’s support.
Very bad quality, but apparently the only way to see this movie by Ebrahim Golestan.Read More »
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Made for the Central Bank of Iran to celebrate the collection of precious jewels kept in the treasury, this film remains filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan’s most visually dazzling work, embellished with terrific camera movements.
Some of the most iconic landscape photography in the history of Iranian cinema can be found within a minute after the opening credits, in which peasants of various ethnicities and tribes are quickly reviewed, all posed in a graceful manner, like kings without being kings. Like a work of musical composition, a simple act of ploughing is spread across shots of various size and angle, creating an intimate visual symphony. And then appears one of Golestan’s allegorical match-cuts: a farmer seen on the horizon before a cut to a diamond on a dark background – the farmer is the jewel.Read More »