Bitter Dream (2004)*

*This film was banned from screening for 12 years.

Director: Mohsen Amiryoussefi

Running Time: 88 minutes

Synopsis: For forty years, Esfandiar has been unconcernedly preparing corpses for the journey to their final resting place. One day, whilst preparing a burial service, he’s taken ill. Might he too be mortal?

Festivals and Awards: Camera d’Or (Special Mention), Cannes Film Festival – FIPRESCI Prize, Geneva International Film Festival – Nominated for Golden Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival – Special Jury Award, Mar del Plata Film Festival – Audience Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival

Trailer:

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Being Born (2016)

Director: Mohsen Abdolvahab

Running Time: 92 minutes

Synopsis: Pari and Farhad are a middle-class family who are both involved in theatre and cinema. They love each other and are happy with their son, though Pari unwantedly becomes pregnant. Farhad insists on abortion but Pari believes the abortion is inhuman and cannot accept her husband’s idea. A baby, who has to possibly make a family life happier, causes some serious changes in their situation.

“Being Born succeeds at tackling love, sacrifice, religion, and gender through a touching intimate portrayal of a couple struggling to reconcile their opposing desires. If it seems to be particularly “of the moment”, given its theme, it approaches it through a universal lens that many audiences will be able to relate to, while also attuning them to the specificity of 2016’s Tehran.” Eastern Kicks

Festivals and Awards: Jury Grand Prize, Vasoul International Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival, Ex Ground Film Festival (Germany)

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Hello Cinema (1995)

Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Running Time: 81 minutes

Synopsis: Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.

“What unfolds is this very precise, very devastating look at power and the director’s role as an allegory for the dictator. Mohsin Makhmalbaf has a deep humanity; though he’s playing with these people, you sense this deep place of love from which this whole film is being made. In our era of reality television and media stars who are desperate to make it, and stage themselves in life to become celebrities, Salaam Cinema is really prescient, and all the more amazing for being from Iran in the 1990s.” Joshua Oppenheimer, Director of The Act of Killing

Festivals and Awards: Best Film – Munich Film Festival (Germany).

Selected Clip:

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White Chairs (2017) (North American Premiere!)

Director: Reza Dormishian

Running Time: 78 minutes

Synopsis: Mat and Emily have both lost their families in Christchurch
earthquake and they live alone. They are in love though they never dare to talk to
each other, however, this relation has been formed in their minds.

“One of the best experiences that can occur with a movie buff when following a film festival is to be surprised by a movie that was completely off their radar. And that is exactly what happened to me with ‘White Chairs’, a co-production between Iran and New Zealand.” Observatorio Do Cinema

Festivals and Awards: Sao Paulo International Film Festival

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No Date, No Signature (2017)

Director: Vahid Jalilvand

Running Time: 104 minutes

Synopsis: Kaveh Nariman is a coroner in the medical examiner’s office. One day at his work he meets a corpse which is very familiar to him.

“Lensed with great sensitivity and style and superbly acted… The film is a visual pleasure, shot in elegant, nearly black-and-white images highlighted with faint traces of color. Mohsen Nassrollahi’s sets and costumes are effective in creating characters and setting the stage for the unfolding drama, matched by Peyman Yazdanian’s subtle musical comment.” Hollywood Reporter

Festivals and Awards: Best Director and Best Actor, Horizons Award, Venice Film Festival – Nominated for Best Film, Horizons Award, Venice Film Festival – Golden Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival – Best Actor, Brastislava International Film Festival – FIPRESCI Prize, Bratislava International Film Festival – Best Actor, Asia Pacific Screen Awards – Nominated for Best Feature Film, Hamburg Film Festival – Best Screenplay, Stockholm Film Festival – Nominated for Best Film, Stockholm Film Festival

Trailer:

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KUPAL (2017)

Director: Kazem Mollaie

Running Time: 81 minutes

Synopsis: “Dr. Ahmad Kupal” is a 50 year-old hunter and a taxidermist. Recently, his wife “Firoozeh” has left him because of his job. Firoozeh will come back only on one condition, that Kupal sends “Haiku” (Kupal’s beloved dog) and the rest of the taxidermied animals out of the house. Moments before the New Year, Kupal and his dog, get trapped in the big taxidermy workshop in the basement of the house…

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Asphyxia (2017)

Director: Fereydoun Jeyrani

Running Time: 107 minutes

Synopsis: Masoud takes his wife who has neurotic tensions to the asylum to take care of her but…

“Fereydoun Jeyrani’s elegant black-and-white thriller refracts Iranian gender politics through the prism of a twisty Hitchcockian noir.” Variety

“Jeyrani’s chilly mood piece has all the stylistic signifiers of an art house niche item, but its luminous beauty and genre-friendly plot may boost its prospects beyond the festival bubble.” Hollywood Reporter

Festivals and Awards: Tallinn Black Night Film Festival – Pune International Film Festival

Trailer: