Persian

  • Abolfazl Jalili – Det Yani Dokhtar AKA Det Means Girl (1995)

    1991-2000Abolfazl JaliliArthouseDramaIran

    Det Means Girl focuses on young Schawan, a factory guard and also a caterer. His crippled sister Baloot and his father come to see him to seek medical treatment for the girl. The efforts of Schawan and his father however prove futile. They even resort to magic and talisman rituals to save the girl’s life.The film emphasises Jalili’s narrative style, which is becoming less conventional. Metaphors and symbolic references make the ending open to interpretations. In this film, Jalili’s main concern is a pictorial language, which results in powerful images that would inspire other artists, such as Shirin Nishat’s images of women inscribed with texts. Det Means Girl was only distributed on a limited scale and has been screened only a couple of times in Teheran, strictly during festivals. The film won awards in Venice and at Le Festival des Trois Continents in Nantes.Read More »

  • Saeed Roustayi – Metri Shesh Va Nim AKA Just 6.5 (2019)

    2011-2020CrimeIranSaeed RoustayiThriller

    The police are after a drug lord named Naser Khakzad, but when they finally manage to catch him, he tries whatever he can think of to escape and save his family.Read More »

  • Masud Kimiai – Dandan-e-mar AKA Snake Fang (1990)

    1981-1990IranMasud KimiaiWar

    Reza, the veteran worker of a print house whose sight is adversely affected because of his job, loses his mother. Finding the gloom reigning over the home beyond bearing, he departs to overcome his sorrows. He ends up at a hostel where he shares his room with a southern guy called Ahmad who has a group of orphan war-stricken children under his wing. After the initial inkling gives way to the friendship, Reza discovers that Ahmad’s patron plies his trade in black-market. At the same time, Reza’s sister is constantly beaten and humiliated by her husband for being infertile…Read More »

  • Mohamad Reza Aalami – Noghteh Zaf aka Weak Spot (1983)

    1981-1990IranMohamad Reza AalamiThriller

    Based on novel by Antonis Samarakis (1919–2003)

    The masterpiece of the Greek writer Antonis Samarakis, To Lathos (The Flaw, 1965), was eerily prophetic of the military dictatorship that was shortly to be established in his native land. The novel, translated into English by Peter Mansfield and Richard Burns, in 1969, dealt with the fate of a suspect detained in an unspecified police state; a plan is devised to make him attempt to escape, thereby proving his guilt, or confess to his anti-state crimes under interrogation.Read More »

  • Jafar Panahi – Khers nist AKA No Bears (2022)

    2021-2030DramaIranJafar Panahi

    Follow two parallel love stories in which the partners are thwarted by hidden, inevitable obstacles, the force of superstition, and the mechanics of power.

    Quote:
    They say girls come from the left side of the man.Read More »

  • Rakhshan Banietemad – Zir-e poost-e shahr AKA Under the Skin of the City (2001)

    2001-2010ArthouseDramaIranRakhshan Banietemad

    Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family, which includes: a pregnant daughter whose husband beats her regularly; a teenage son, who’s been getting into trouble due to his burgeoning career in radical politics; and an older son who goes to great lengths–such as attempting to sell the family’s meager house–in order to get an engineering job in Japan as a means of getting out of Iran. Unfortunately the ‘friend’ to whom he gave his money as an advance for his trip took off with the money, and the son finds himself without money, without a career, and with a debt towards a lot of people. To solve his problems he wants to deliver a package of heroin, but loses it, and has to flee. The film ends dramatically with a direct call from the mother to the camera crew asking what life has given them after all the sacrifices they have done, mirroring the opening scene.Read More »

  • Amirhossein Ashrafi & Mohammad Kart & Arastoosohrabinya – Shena-ye Parvaneh AKA Butterfly Stroke (2020)

    Drama2011-2020Amirhossein AshrafiArastoosohrabinyaCrimeIranMohammad Kart

    Quote:
    A film of a woman swimming in a pool is distributed through the internet. Now her husband and her brother are after finding the one who is responsible for that and taking revenge on him.Read More »

  • Jafar Panahi – Ayneh AKA The Mirror (1997)

    1991-2000ArthouseDramaIranJafar Panahi

    A girl in traditional female clothing, and her arm in plaster, comes out of school one day and doesn’t find her mother meeting her. She decides to travel home her self though she doesn’t know her address and remembers the road only visuallyRead More »

  • Mani Haghighi – Khook AKA Pig (2018)

    2011-2020ComedyCrimeIranMani Haghighi

    Hasan is seething with rage. A blacklisted director, it’s been years since he was allowed to shoot a film. The actress he has made a star and with whom he is in love now wants to make a film with another director. He and his wife have drifted apart and his daughter is also about to cut the cord. Moreover, his old mother who lives with them appears to be losing her mind. Worst of all, however, is that in Tehran and its environs, filmmakers are being murdered. But why is the serial killer ignoring him of all people? Hasan is crushed: isn’t he the best filmmaker in town? Why isn’t he being beheaded? His frustration is exacerbated when, as a result of a series of bizarre misunderstandings, he becomes the prime suspect. There’s a frenzy of running commentaries on social media and his popularity is plummeting by the minute. Hasan needs a diabolical plan to restore his reputation.Read More »

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