12 Films of Ale: The Persian diaspora
Undoubtedly this list will grow. Iranian/Persian filmmakers have certainly made their marks on world cinema since the 1960s, and especially since Abbas Kiarostami came to festival attention in the early 1990s, but this has rarely resulted in them being accorded the kinds of artistic freedom in their home country, and so as with many other filmmakers from repressive regimes (Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, North Korea, etc), we have a diaspora movement consisting of many of the country's greatest artists who have left to make the kinds of work elsewhere that they couldn't make at home. Interestingly enough some of these filmmakers have been able to return, and continue to work in Iran, so it seems to me that the connections between these diaspora works and the works of filmmakers in Iran are often stronger than they seem to be in other diaspora communities; Kiarostami's non-Iranian films still seem "Persian" in some way, while I'm not sure one can say that Fritz Lang's or Billy Wilder's American films are "German".
In any case, this is a list consisting mostly of films from Iranian-born filmmakers working outside of the country, with a minority of films included by Persian-heritage directors, usually in Farsi, and typically representing subjects that could never be dealt with under the theocratic regime that controls the country. Ordered by preference; I have a separate, much longer list of "pure" Iranian films.
In any case, this is a list consisting mostly of films from Iranian-born filmmakers working outside of the country, with a minority of films included by Persian-heritage directors, usually in Farsi, and typically representing subjects that could never be dealt with under the theocratic regime that controls the country. Ordered by preference; I have a separate, much longer list of "pure" Iranian films.
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