101 Films of Ale: Iran
The first 33 films are ranked; the rest are listed in chronological order. I have made a separate (much shorter) list of "Persian diaspora" cinema which consists of works produced outside the country by Iranian filmmakers.
I fell in love with Iranian cinema in the early-to-mid 1990s, after seeing Panahi's The White Balloon and several films from Kiarostami; I was lucky enough to be living in Chicago, which had an enthusiastic critic (Jonathan Rosenbaum) who was an early champion of this culture's cinema, and an institution (The Film Center of the Art Institute) that held an Iranian film festival every autumn for several years. And my interest has continued to this day, and I'm pleased to see that Iranian cinema has had an ever-greater presence on the world stage.
Westerners, especially my American countrymen, who don't know Iranian cinema or Persian culture in general would probably be surprised that it is not a cinema and culture primarily concerned with denigrating and attacking America and Israel and the west in general. While these elements are not entirely absent (just as anti-Muslim and anti-Iranian sentiment is hardly absent in our western world), you will find that in most of the Iranian films that are present on my list and indeed in most that find their way to film festivals and cinemas, that overt political statements - of any kind - are hardly a primary impulse. Rosenbaum once called Iranian cinema "the most ethical" in the world; while this strikes me as needlessly hyperbolic and impossible to prove, I do think it's fair to say that few if any national cinemas over the last 30 years have been more concerned with ethical issues. If you want a cinema that really attempts to explore some of the basic elements of the human condition in responsible ways without kowtowing to adolescent tastes, the Iranian cinema is as good a place as any to explore.
This is not to say that Iranian cinema consists entirely of humanist dramas or psychological explorations of what it means to live in the world, but this wonderful and rare (if not unique) cinema derives largely from the unfortunate fact that the revolution at the end of the 1970s severely limited the subjects which filmmakers were able to tackle, and censored much of what we take for granted in the western world (i.e, sex and violence). You won't see any teen sex comedies here - but neither will you see shoot 'em ups. The period before 1980 does offer a bit wider range of material, and Iranian filmmakers like their peers in France (probably the country that most influenced the development of Iranian cinema), Germany, or America were trying to make more "adult" films dealing with once-taboo themes. Alas most of the 1960s-70s films are very difficult to find, and typically can only be seen in very poor condition. But these films do still exist, and we can hope that the still-increasing attention this great national cinema is getting will eventually lead to the unearthing of more of these buried treasures.
I fell in love with Iranian cinema in the early-to-mid 1990s, after seeing Panahi's The White Balloon and several films from Kiarostami; I was lucky enough to be living in Chicago, which had an enthusiastic critic (Jonathan Rosenbaum) who was an early champion of this culture's cinema, and an institution (The Film Center of the Art Institute) that held an Iranian film festival every autumn for several years. And my interest has continued to this day, and I'm pleased to see that Iranian cinema has had an ever-greater presence on the world stage.
Westerners, especially my American countrymen, who don't know Iranian cinema or Persian culture in general would probably be surprised that it is not a cinema and culture primarily concerned with denigrating and attacking America and Israel and the west in general. While these elements are not entirely absent (just as anti-Muslim and anti-Iranian sentiment is hardly absent in our western world), you will find that in most of the Iranian films that are present on my list and indeed in most that find their way to film festivals and cinemas, that overt political statements - of any kind - are hardly a primary impulse. Rosenbaum once called Iranian cinema "the most ethical" in the world; while this strikes me as needlessly hyperbolic and impossible to prove, I do think it's fair to say that few if any national cinemas over the last 30 years have been more concerned with ethical issues. If you want a cinema that really attempts to explore some of the basic elements of the human condition in responsible ways without kowtowing to adolescent tastes, the Iranian cinema is as good a place as any to explore.
This is not to say that Iranian cinema consists entirely of humanist dramas or psychological explorations of what it means to live in the world, but this wonderful and rare (if not unique) cinema derives largely from the unfortunate fact that the revolution at the end of the 1970s severely limited the subjects which filmmakers were able to tackle, and censored much of what we take for granted in the western world (i.e, sex and violence). You won't see any teen sex comedies here - but neither will you see shoot 'em ups. The period before 1980 does offer a bit wider range of material, and Iranian filmmakers like their peers in France (probably the country that most influenced the development of Iranian cinema), Germany, or America were trying to make more "adult" films dealing with once-taboo themes. Alas most of the 1960s-70s films are very difficult to find, and typically can only be seen in very poor condition. But these films do still exist, and we can hope that the still-increasing attention this great national cinema is getting will eventually lead to the unearthing of more of these buried treasures.
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101 titles
- DirectorForugh FarrokhzadStarsForugh FarrokhzadEbrahim GolestanHossein MansouriSet in a leper colony in the north of Iran, The House is Black juxtaposes "ugliness", of which there is much in the world as stated in the opening scenes, with religion and gratitude.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHossain SabzianMohsen MakhmalbafAbolfazl AhankhahThe true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsMirhadi TayebiMohsen MakhmalbafAli BakhsiA semi-autobiographical account of Makmahlbaf's experience as a teenager when, as a 17-year-old, he stabbed a policeman at a protest rally. Two decades later, he tracks down the policeman he injured in an attempt to make amends.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBehzad DoraniNoghre AsadiRoushan Karam ElmiIrreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
- DirectorTahmineh MilaniStarsNiki KarimiMerila Zare'iMohammad Reza ForutanA sensation when released in 1999 in Iran, Two Women charts the lives of two promising architecture students over the course of the first turbulent years of the Islamic Republic. Tahimine Milani creates this scathing portrait of those traditions - aided by official indifference - which conspire to trap women and stop them from realizing their full potential; the inclusion of frank depictions of domestic violence was hailed by many as a breakthrough in dealing with a long taboo subject.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsMaryiam Palvin AlmaniNargess MamizadehMojgan FaramarziVarious women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
- DirectorEbrahim GolestanStarsParviz SayyadMary ApickShahnaz TehraniAli (Parviz Sayyad) who is a poor farmer when plowing his farm finds a treasure. He secretly begins to sell some of this treasure in the city and making a luxurious life for himself. By the encouragements of some customers of his treasure in the city he decides to divorce his rural wife and marry a girl from the city. But some of the villagers are after his treasure and his big marriage will not be without problems.
- DirectorMarva NabiliStarsFlora ShabavizA young woman in pre-revolution Iran is caught between the traditional values of her small village and her own yearnings for independence and individuality. Her persistent refusal of marriage proposals coupled with her unseemly removal of her hood causes her family to seek the help of an exorcist, convinced she must be possessed by evil spirits.
- DirectorBahram BeyzaieStarsSusan TaslimiParviz PoorhosseiniAdnan AfravianAn Iranian boy is lost after fleeing home for his life; his family has been killed during the Iran-Iraq war. He's saved and trained by a middle-aged woman.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsEzzatolah EntezamiMahin ShahabiAli NasirianAn old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.
- DirectorBahram BeyzaieStarsMozhdeh ShamsaiHoma RustaJamileh SheikhiA young woman's wedding becomes a ritual of mourning when her sister and family die in an auto accident on the way to the wedding. The sisters' mother refuses to accept her daughter's death, and in the midst of wedding guests and mourners, including the drivers of the truck that caused the accident, she orders the wedding to take place. But how can the daughter marry in the midst of a wake and without the family's traditional mirror, which the sister was bringing to the service? The film is transcendental in its resolution.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHomayoun ErshadiAbdolhosein BagheriAfshin Khorshid BakhtiariAn Iranian man drives his car in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsTaraneh AlidoostiGolshifteh FarahaniShahab HosseiniThe mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.
- DirectorMojtaba MirtahmasbJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiIgiMrs. GheiratIt's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.
- DirectorEbrahim GolestanStarsTaji AhmadiZackaria HashemiGoli BozorgmehrHashem (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. He 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.
- DirectorMohammad RasoulofStarsLeila ZareFereshteh Sadre OrafaiyShahab HosseiniStory of a young lawyer in Tehran in search of a visa to leave the country, which is what Mohammad Rasoulof did during the winter of 2010/11.
- DirectorEbrahim GolestanThis is a short documentary about Marlik hills and the archaeology's explorations there. But also it is about life, art, and the hope for a better tomorrow.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA 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.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiNasrin SotoudehBanned from making movies by the Iranian government, Jafar Panahi poses as a taxi driver and makes a movie about social challenges in Iran.
- DirectorAmir NaderiIt all began with "Black Friday" - a massacre on Sept 8, 1978, by the Shah's police. Official pronouncements put the death toll at 200, but the next day the people of Teheran witnessed how thousands of bodies were brought to Behast Zahra cemetery. Yet even this wasn't the whole extent of the tragedy. As the families continued looking for their relatives they began to realize just how many had disappeared. Over the next few months the massacres continued, with many thousands more disappearing, until February 11th, 1979, victory day for the Revolution. Naderi's film follows this search for the missing, through which the terrible truth is gradually revealed. The film is not only a documentary but also a document of a horrible crime.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsFarhad KheradmandPouya PayvarBehrouz AbediniA director and his son return to a region damaged by the Guilan earthquake, hoping to find the children who appeared in his film a few years earlier.
- DirectorMohammad RasoulofStarsAnonymousAnonymousM. Ali NazarianKhosrow and Morteza set out on a mission to kill someone. The assassination ought to be arranged as a suicide. At the last minute however, they are obliged to change their initial plans...
- DirectorAmir NaderiStarsSoheila AhmadiRasool ChamaniZohreh GhahremaniOne of Naderi's most beautiful films, a kind of magical realist parable that follows a boy's daily chore: bringing an elegant glass bowl to get filled with ice, and then returning home. The simplicity of this ritual stands in contrast to a world in which every glance and every gesture seems loaded with hidden meaning.
- DirectorMohammad RasoulofStarsHassan PourshiraziYounes GhazaliMohammad RabbaniRahmat has been asked to meet the inhabitants of these islands to collect their tears. Although for years people have been giving their tears to Rahmat, no one knows exactly what he has been doing with them.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsMina Mohammad KhaniKazem MojdehiNaser OmuniWhen a young girl becomes lost in the hustle and bustle of Tehran, her journey turns into a dazzling exercise on the nature of film itself.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMohamad Ramezani PourCollection of 24 short four-and-a-half minute films inspired by still images, including paintings and photographs.
- DirectorSohrab Shahid SalessStarsZadour BonyadiMohammed KaniHedayatollah NavidThe daily life of Mohammad Sardari(Zadour Bonyadi) , a railway switchman on the verge of retirement, who lives with his wife and soldier son near the railway track.
- DirectorJafar PanahiKambuzia PartoviStarsKambuzia PartoviMaryam MoghadamJafar PanahiIn a secluded house by the sea with the curtains shut, a screenwriter hides from the world with only his dog as company. The tranquility is abruptly broken one night by the arrival of a young woman fleeing from the authorities. Refusing to leave, she takes refuge in the house. But come dawn, another unexpected presence will change everything.
- DirectorBahram BeyzaieStarsSusan TaslimiDariush FarhangSimin AnsariMr. Modabber who is a dubber see his wife Kian sitting in a car of a stranger in one scene of a documentary he is been dubbing. With the help of the director and the editor of the documentary he finds the stranger who has a pawn shop. But when meets him he finds that the woman is not his wife but her twin sister Vida. While faking that he making a documentary he brings his wife to meet her twin sister. Kian finds that in her childhood her father passed away and her mother.
- DirectorKioumars DerambakhshStarsParviz FanizadehFarshid FarshoodNovin GhiasiThe uncle of the young narrator enters his house unexpectedly. In order to offer him some refreshments, he goes to bring a bottle of wine. Through the crevice of the wall which happens to be there, he sees an ethereal girl offering a lotus flower to an old man who bursts into a hair-raising laughter. Surprisingly, this is exactly the picture he keeps drawing on pen cases as a calling. He is then jolted into realities. The thought of the old man gradually begins to loom over his life and sow the seed of anxiety. The narrator embarks on a journey in search of the ethereal girl and the old man. His journey, however, takes him into a study of history and myths. The narrator comes back and realizes that his uncle has left, leaving the door agape like the mouth of a dead man. Desperately he goes out to look for the ethereal girl. But upon returning he finds the girl sitting on the front stairs. The girl enters the house as if she knows the way and lies in bed. But she is dead. In the morning the narrator cuts the body into pieces and puts them in a trunk. Then an odds-and-ends man appears out if the blue to help him with burial. While digging the ground they find an ancient pottery which the old man takes as his wages. The pottery bears the same picture he keeps painting on his pen-cases. In the second section, the narrator finds himself bedridden in a room with two small windows to the outside world. Through the small window he can see a butcher and an odds-and-ends man. He recalls his past; his mother leaves him and goes to India and entrusts him to the care of a nanny. Later the narrator marries his cousin who does not love him and instead sleeps with the rabbles. He gradually wastes away and approaches death even more. The only communication in his small world is his nanny who evokes his feeling of hatred for old beliefs and superstitions. Feeling the sharp fangs of death on his neck, he decides to the take his wife with him. So he disguises himself as the odds-and-ends man and kills her. And he becomes the odds-and-ends man himself. In fact, the narrator becomes one of the rabbles whom he holds in great abhorrence.
- DirectorSamuel KhachikianStarsArmais Vartani HovsepianParvin GhaffariMohamad Ali FardinAmir who needs money to marry with his fiance Maryam begins to do illegal working in a gang of a guy Afshar. Afshar's wife falls in love with Amir but he doesn't care for her. One day Afshar sees them alone and becomes suspicious.
- DirectorEbrahim GolestanStarsMyron KinleyAn oil well is on fire near Ahvaz in the south of Iran and firemen are trying hard day and night to put it out.
- DirectorMohammad Reza AslaniStarsManouchehr AnvarStory of the Hassanlou chalice, which becomes the story of Halladj.
- DirectorKamran ShirdelIt's a short documentary about prostitutes zone in Tehran which called "Shahre no" before Iran's revolution on 1979. based on interviews with it's inhabitants
- DirectorKhosrow Sinai
- DirectorKamran ShirdelA documentary which explores what did or did not happen on a rainy night a young boy allegedly saved a train from crashing.
- DirectorMohamad Ali FardinStarsMohamad Ali FardinAzar ShivaVictoria NerssisianA little girl with a blind mother, accidentally becomes friends with a famous and rich singer who decides to help her in her life.
- DirectorMasud KimiaiStarsBehrouz VossoughiPouri BaneaiNaser Malek MotieeA young man's drive to avenge for his sister and brother.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsAli NasirianEzzatolah EntezamiFakhri KhorvashA man from village goes to city, to find a job and marry a wife. But encounters with a lot of troubles he did not expect.
- DirectorNasser TaghvaiA documentary about a traditional religious ritual in Boushehr, Iran.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsReza HashemiMehdi ShahravanfarA child carrying a bread is going home but in the alley on his way to home, there is a frightening dog and he doesn't seem to pass it alone.
- DirectorParviz Kimiavi
- DirectorMasud KimiaiStarsBehrouz VossoughiBahman MofidMary ApickDash Akol is greatly respected in Shiraz as an honorable man who has lost his family's money through helping his friends. He has an enemy, however, named Kaka Rostam, a mean and spiteful person. Dash Akol, who is in his forties, falls in love with Marjan, daughter of the late Haji Samad, for whose estate he is the executor. But he keeps his love secret. One day a suitor asks for Marjan's hand, and Dash Akol considers it against his code of honor to refuse. On the night of the wedding, Dash Akol hands over responsibility for the family to the bridegroom. As he is leaving the house, however, Kaka Rostam is waiting for him and a fight ensues. Kaka Rostam stabs him in the back, but Dash Akol succeeds in killing him. On his deathbed, Dash Akol sends his parrot to Marjan with the confession of love he has taught it.
- DirectorNasser TaghvaiStarsAkbar MeshkinSoraya GhasemiLeila BaharanA former army colonel comes from a village to live in the city with her daughters where he finds it hard to adapt with the modern life.
- DirectorParviz KimiaviStarsMohammad Jazayeri TabasAgha Seyed ali Mirza SajadiAn old hermit lives in a slum and wants to teach the alphabet to the children regularly go there to play. What makes the hermit happiest however, is when he comes to the letter P (for "Pedarsag", or "Puppy"). When a child proposes he use the word "Pelican" instead, the hermit goes to the nearby park looking for this animal he has never heard of.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsAli NasirianEzzatolah EntezamiJaleh SamAn impotent,nervous,unbalanced postman, having a beautiful wife, lives in his master s house. When the educated nephew of the master comes back from Europe, complications occur which result to bad events for postman and his wife.
- DirectorBahram BeyzaieStarsSirus Hasan PourAbbas DastranjJamshid LayeghThe story is about two poor boy's search for their father through a "Journey" from downtown to uptown.
- DirectorParviz KimiaviStarsFahimeh RastkarParviz KimiaviAgha Seyed ali Mirza SajadiA director of a television series on the history of cinema, who has been grappling with the screenplay of his first feature film, receives an assignment to oversee the installation of a television relay station in a remote region of Zahedan province, near the Afghanistan border. He has already hired Turkoman tribespeople for his film and selected his filming location. Meanwhile his wife, who is working on her Ph.D. dissertation about the Mongol invasion of Iran, attempts to dissuade him from accepting the assignment. One night, while working on his history of the cinema series, the director fantasizes a diagetic world that consists of clever juxtapositions of his different worlds: the history of cinema, the history of the mongol invasion, his own film idea and his imminent assignment to the desert.
- DirectorAmir NaderiStarsMasoud GudarziMehdi JavadiShahla DarvishiSet on the sun-drenched southern coast of Iran, "Harmonica" begins as a young boy receives a musical present from abroad. Fascinated and envious, his friends make him the leader of the pack, as they compete for the privilege of holding the harmonica or even blowing a few notes. No one is more obsessed than Amiroo, gentle and heavy-set, who seems willing to do anything to get close to the harmonica and its owner.
- DirectorSohrab Shahid SalessStarsHedayatollah NavidHibibollah SafarianAne Mohammad TarikhiA small schoolboy lives an austere life with his family in Northern coasts of Iran.
- DirectorParviz KimiaviStarsDarvish Khan EsfandiarpoorDarvish Khan a deaf and mute man who is a shepherd lives with his family in the desert. One day when sleeping in the desert he has a strange dream. When awake he finds a stone and carry it home and hangs it on a tree. Little by little he finds more stones carry them and hanging them on the trees until his garden of stones is becomes famous absorbing people from all around.
- DirectorBahram BeyzaieStarsParvaneh MassoumiKhosrow ShojazadehManuchehr FaridIn a remote Iranian village, a boat arrives with a wounded man, Ayat, who has amnesia. Widow Ra'na is interested in him, causing family tensions. Villagers ask Ayat to marry, but he chooses Ra'na, leading to trouble.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMohammad FassihMassoud ZandMehdi NekoueïA 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.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsKurosh AfsharpanahShohreh AghdashlooMostafa TariThe life of a tax collector who is accused of taking bribes, and also has to deal with other problems at home, including the suicide attempt of his wife.
- DirectorAli HatamiStarsBehrouz VossoughiJamshid MashayekhiFakhri KhorvashDesiderium lyrically charts the hapless loves of three brothers: Majid, the young handicapped brother with a deformed head who falls in love with Aghdas, a prostitute hired by his eldest brother Habib to entertain him, not knowing the truth about her profession. Karim, the middle brother is so infatuated with a quail that he almost completely ignores his wife and her emotions. Habib himself is in love with Foroogh, a tailor lady who lives with them, while his sense of responsibility about Majid keeps him from requiting her affections.
- DirectorBahram BeyzaieStarsSusan TaslimiManuchehr FaridReza BabakTara, the young beautiful widow, returns with her two little kids from country to her village. In her way home, she finds out that her grandfather has passed away. She distributes grandpa's belongings among her neighbours. But there remains an old sword that no one accepts. One day on the road, she meets an old-time warrior. He claims that his clan have sent him to present time to take the old sword back. Tara finally submits the sword to him, but he comes back saying that he has fallen in love with her.
- DirectorBahram BeyzaieStarsSusan TaslimiMehdi HashemiMahmoud BehrouzianDeath of Yazdgerd is the story of death of the last king of Iran before Muslims invade Iran. He escapes to city of Marv and hides in a mill but finally gets killed. The Story is told by the miller, his wife and his daughter but all the stories are different from each other.
- DirectorAmir NaderiStarsMadjid NiroumandAbbas NazeriMusa TorkizadehAfter enrolling in a school, an impoverished boy finds conflict with his classmates and decides to compete to earn their respect.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBabek Ahmed PoorAhmed Ahmed PoorKhodabakhsh DefaeiEight-year-old Ahmed has mistakenly taken his friend Mohammad's notebook. He wants to return it, or else his friend will be expelled from school. The boy determinedly sets out to find Mohammad's home in the neighbouring village.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBabak AhmadpoorFarhang AkhavanMohammad Reza NematzadehIn this documentary, Kiarostami asks a number of students about their school homework. The answers of some children shows the darker side of this method of education.
- DirectorAmir NaderiStarsMadjid NiroumandA young teenager returns home after an absence to find his village in Iran deserted because of an incredibly severe drought. He begins a search to find his family, traveling through an amazingly bleak and desolate landscape. Primarily an essay on the issue of humans vs. nature, the film is of interest for technical and cultural reasons.
- DirectorAli HatamiStarsRogheyeh Chehreh-AzadMohamad Ali KeshavarzFarimah FarjamiHow a mother acts in the hardest parts of her, and her children's lives.
- DirectorRakhshan BanietemadStarsFarimah FarjamiAbolfazl PoorarabAtefeh RazaviAdel is a young criminal who frequently teams up with his middle-aged wife Afagh in order to carry out the most audacious schemes. But when Adel falls in love with Narges, he realises he is quite prepared to start a new life on the right side of the law. Posing as his mother, Afagh assures the bride's family that Adel is reliable, but his criminal record closes most doors in his attempts to secure a legitimate career path. Trapped in a love triangle and in the limbo of a double life, can Adel ever achieve the better future for which he is striving ?
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsEzzatolah EntezamiMehdi HashemiMohamad Ali KeshavarzAn abstract retelling of the history of Film in Iran.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsNiki KarimiYassamin MaleknasrKhosro ShakibaiSara is the perfect young housewife, eager to serve. When husband Hessam requires an expensive emergency operation abroad, it is she who get the funds. For the next three years, it is Sara, labouring secretly to pay the shady loan and save Hessam's manly pride. Until the truth is revealed and with it, the reality of her marriage.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsAida MohammadkhaniMohsen KafiliFereshteh Sadre OrafaiySeveral people try to help a little girl to find the money her mom gave her to buy a goldfish with.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsNiki KarimiKhosro ShakibaiAli MosaffaHaunted by a book found in her dead brother's room, Pari wanders around to find answers for a meaningful life.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsShaghayeh DjodatHossein MoharamiRogheih MoharamiWhen an old couple washes their gabbeh - a type of Persian rug - a young woman magically appears and tells them her life story.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsLeila HatamiAli MosaffaJamileh SheikhiThe story of a semi-modern Iranian couple, who are trying to fight the old beliefs and old generation, but is a failing battle because the man is not strong enough.
- DirectorSamira MakhmalbafStarsMassoumeh NaderiZahra NaderiGhorban Ali NaderiAfter twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein MahjoubMohsen RamezaniSalameh FeyziThe story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.
- DirectorEbrahim HatamikiaStarsAzita HajianReza KianianParviz ParastuiA man and a woman fight over the rights to a property.
- DirectorBahman FarmanaraStarsBahman FarmanaraRoya NonahaliEbrahim AbadiDeath surrounds Bahman, a director who hasn't made a film in 24 years (he can't get past the censors). He's working on a documentary, for Japanese TV, on Iranian burial practices. On the anniversary of his wife's death, a hitchhiker tells him a story of spousal abuse and infant mortality, he discovers that someone has been buried in his plot next to his wife, and he needs the help of his attorney, a well-connected fixer. He dreams of death, even as he investigates it for his film. His niece's husband, a well-known writer, fails to return home; he searches hospitals for an unclaimed body. His heart disease is flaring up. Is he prepared for death? Is that all that's left?
- DirectorMarzieh MakhmalbafStarsFatemeh Cherag AkharHassan NebhanShahr Banou SisizadehA film comprised of three interconnected vignettes that depict women at three stages of life in Iran. The first part centers on a young girl on her ninth birthday who is told that she can no longer play with the boys she had been playing with only the day before because she is now a woman. Told from the perspective of a 9-year-old girl who does not feel like or know what the word "woman" refers to, we see how devastatingly this affects both the girl and the boy with whom she had been friends. The second part is about a young woman who decides to enter a bicycle race against her husband's wishes. As first, the husband and then increasing numbers of men from her village ride beside her on horseback to convince her to return home. The race begins to symbolize a freedom that she desperately wants from the limitations that have been placed on her. Finally, the third part shows us an old woman who has come into some money and is now free to do what she wants. The way she chooses to use this freedom, however, makes one wonder just how free she is.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein AbediniZahra BahramiMohammad Amir NajiIn a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
- DirectorTahmineh MilaniStarsNiki KarimiMohammad NikbinAtila PesianiAn official is sent from his home in Tehran to hear the final appeal of a woman sentenced to death, a political prisoner. The official's wife of nearly 20 years, Fereshteh Samimi, writes him a letter to read when he reaches the hotel - the story of her student days during the revolution of 1978. We see the story in flashbacks as he reads: she leaves her province on scholarship, joins a Communist youth group, avoids arrest, and comes under the sway of a suave older man, Roozbeh Javid, a literary-magazine editor. As she tells her husband about the hidden half of her life, Fereshteh asks that he listen to the woman facing execution, a woman and therefore one of Iran's hidden half.
- DirectorBabak PayamiStarsNassim AbdiCyrus AbidiYoussef HabashiA female election agent and a gun-toting soldier try to collect votes among the local islanders with mixed success.
- DirectorReza MirkarimiStarsHossein ParastarHamed RajabaliMehran RajabiHassan is a student of Religious /Islamic school and is about to be dressed as a missioner .In such a time when his other mates are excited and are getting ready to be formally dressed and to become a spiritual missioner Hassan's doubts and incoherences starts and he begins to have a struggle with himself. Therefore he postpones his ceremony, yet for the sake of his father and to respect him he buys the dress. Meanwhile a young boy steals his formal clothes. Hassan goes after the boy and through this path he gets to know about the poverty of the people and the poor neighborhood where the young boy lives. He communicates with this community and gets familiar with their life style. This event gives him a motivation to become a spiritual missioner because he realizes that in this way he can serve these people. At the end, the young boy ends up in a rehabilitation center for children and is going to start a new life.
- DirectorRakhshan BanietemadStarsGolab AdinehMohammad Reza ForutanBaran KosariA valuable visual commentary on modern society, 'Under The Skin Of The City' follows one Iranian family in their eternal struggle to stay afloat financially and emotionally. Touba works hard at a textile factory to make ends meet during the day, returning in the evening to face the trials and tribulations of her family: her pregnant daughter who frequently suffers at the hands of her abusive husband, a son embroiled in radical politics, and another son who hopes to escape to Japan. In their fight for self-determination and independence, Touba and her family come to represent the plight of the working class in modern day Tehran.
- DirectorMohsen MakhmalbafStarsGhafour BarahouyiMaryam OzbakMohsen MakhmalbafDocumentary showing the life of children of the Afghan villages bordering Iran, and how their life and culture were affected by Taliban regime.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMania AkbariAmina MaherKamran AdlA visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.
- DirectorFariborz KamkariStarsFarzin SabooniParviz MoassShilan RahmaniIn Black Tape: A Tehran Diary, a tape found in the garbage is revealed to be a young wife's daily video diary. The film courageously investigates injustice through a combination of political intrigue and innovative narrative technique.
- DirectorRakhshan BanietemadStarsPegah AhangaraniArezu BayatReza DavoudnejadDocumentary covering women's political involvement and contribution in the 2001 Iranian elections.
- DirectorShirin NeshatStarsShoja AzariSussan DeyhimIn a two-screen video installation, two singers perform to explore gender roles and cultural power through ancient Persian music and poetry.
- DirectorSamira MakhmalbafStarsAgheleh RezaieAbdolgani YousefraziMarzieh AmiriIn a post-Taliban Afghanistan a young woman (Agheleh Rezaie) attends school against her conservative father's will, hoping to learn more about democracy to fulfill her dream of being the country's next president.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsHossain EmadeddinKamyar SheisiAzita RayejiAn Iranian pizza delivery man sees the worst of corruption and social unbalance in his city and is driven to crime.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsSoran EbrahimAvaz LatifSaddam Hossein FeysalNear the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
- DirectorMarzieh MakhmalbafStarsGol-GhotaiZahedAgheleh RezaieThe story of survival of 2 children in post-Taliban Afghanistan. Their mother has been imprisoned for "adultery" and their father is in Guantanamo Bay.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsAbbas KiarostamiMania AkbariDocumentary where Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami reflects on his own film-making techniques, drawing from his own films - and Ten (2002) in particular.
- DirectorShahram Mokri
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsHediyeh TehraniTaraneh AlidoostiHamid FarrokhnezhadOn the last Wednesday before the spring solstice ushers in the Persian New Year, people set off fireworks following an ancient Zoroastrian tradition. Rouhi, spending her first day at a new job, finds herself in the midst of a different kind of fireworks -- a domestic dispute between her new boss and his wife.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsSima Mobarak-ShahiShayesteh IraniAyda SadeqiThe struggle of women in a country that excludes them from entering stadiums.
- DirectorRafi PittsStarsRafi PittsJavad NazariMitra HajjarIn an act of vengeance, a young man randomly kills two police officers. He escapes to the forest, where he is arrested by two other officers. The three men are surrounded by trees, the woods. They are lost in a maze, a desolate landscape, where the boundaries between the hunter and the hunted are difficult to perceive.
- DirectorHomayoon Ass'adianStarsNegar JavaherianBehrouz ShoaybiJavad EzatiA Tehran mullah-in-training struggles to take care of his ailing wife and their children in this profoundly moving melodrama. A film of near-universal appeal, it puts a human face on Iran's Muslim clergy with its unusual tale of a man forced by hardship to become a better husband and father. Seyed Reza has just moved with his family to Tehran so he can study the Koran, and he relies on his lovely wife Zahra to look after their two young children and weave the intricate rugs that earn them a living. But one evening Zahra collapses and is taken to the hospital, where she's diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Scarcely able to process the tragedy, Seyed is left to cook, change diapers, walk his daughter to school and take his toddler son with him to his classes, where peers and elders treat him with scorn. But Seyed eventually learns to cope, his prayers and devotional studies taking on deeper meaning as he attends to the hard nightly work of rug weaving, getting through with a heavy assist from friends, neighbors and kind strangers.
- DirectorSafi YazdanianStarsLeila HatamiAli MosaffaMohammad DezfulizadehA woman comes back from Paris to her country after a long time. She meets a man that she hardly knows, but he knows a lot about her life.
- DirectorIda PanahandehStarsSareh BayatSahar AghiliPayam AhmadiniaA woman tries to mend the broken pieces of her last life, as she is now involved in a new relationship with a man.
- DirectorMani HaghighiStarsMohammad Hassan MadjooniLeila HatamiLeili RashidiIranian directors are getting slaughtered by an unknown serial killer and a blacklisted director, Hasan Kasmai, is curious about only one thing: Why isn't the killer after him?
- DirectorBahram BeyzaieStarsParviz FanizadehMohamad Ali KeshavarzJamshid LayeghA well educated and humble teacher arrives in a new city and at a new job in the pre-revolutionary Iran. He falls in love with a hardworking underprivileged young woman that nurses her very old mother and raises her young brother. In an environment where commitments and social problems often stand in the way between people and their dreams.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsFaramarz GharibianTaraneh AlidoostiBabak AnsariIn Islamic Iran, how much is a woman worth in comparison with a man, and who pays the difference? This film is tale of vengeance, labyrinthine judicial procedure & the concept of "blood money."