Iranian Film Festival
The annual showcase of the best in Iranian cinema returns! Additional films screen February 3-5 at Rice Cinema.
Generous support provided by ILEX Foundation. Special thanks to Niloo Fotouhi (ILEX Foundation); Barbara Scharres (Gene Siskel Film Center); Carter Long, Kristen Lauerman, Rodney Uhler, and Dylan Leavitt (MFA Boston); Tom Vick (Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution); Charles Dove (Rice Cinema); the Iranian Cultural Foundation-Houston; Asia Society Texas Center; and the Society of Iranian American Women for Education.
Sponsors
Past Films in This Series
2009, Farsi
Directed by Marjan Alizadeh
North American Premiere! This cinematic essay considers the history and traditions of apparel in Iran, framed by the contemporary story of Mahdis, a beautiful young woman living in Tehran who aspires to be a fashion model against her devout father’s wishes. She works at a fashion agency, where her time is spent preparing a catwalk show for male models, since women are prohibited from participating. Writer-director Alizadeh uses fascinating historical footage to skillfully trace how styles of dress have evolved ...
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Bé omid é didar
2011, in Farsi with English subtitles
Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof
From the director of The White Meadows (a favorite from 2010’s Iranian Film Festival), Good Bye is the story of Noora (Leyla Zareh), a Tehran lawyer in search of a visa to leave the country. Recently disbarred for participating in activist campaigns against the government, Noora is pregnant and alone, her husband exiled because of his role as a political journalist. But Noora’s problems are compounded by her gender: women are not allowed to drive, cannot get medical procedures or ...
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In film nist
2010, in Farsi with English subtitles
Directed by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and Jafar Panahi
“Secretly shot on an iPhone by Mojtaba Mirtahmasb and smuggled into France on a USB key hidden in a cake for a last-minute submission to the Cannes Film Festival, it depicts the sequestered life of famed director Jafar Panahi (The Circle, Offside), whose 2010 arrest sparked an international outcry. Banned from traveling, giving interviews or making films, Panahi is seen talking to his family and lawyer on the phone, discussing his plight with Mirtahmasb and reflecting on the meaning of ...
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Soog
2011, in Farsi with English subtitles
Directed by Morteza Farshbaf
Real-life husband and wife Kiomars Giti and Sharareh Pasha star as a hearing-impaired couple suddenly left with the responsibility of caring for their nephew. While visiting her sister and brother-in-law, the boy’s mother and father argue in the middle of the night and drive away. The following day, the boy rides with his aunt and uncle searching for his parents. Director Farshbaf fashions a consistently surprising and blackly comic road trip that "herald[s] the arrival of a major new Iranian ...
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Inja bedoone man
2011, in Farsi with English subtitles
Directed by Bahram Tavakoli
“In this contemporary adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ Glass Menagerie, middle-aged single mother Farideh (Fatemeh Motamed-Aria) works in a food processing plant and moonlights as a telemarketer. Her shy daughter Yalda is of a marriageable age but her the brace on her leg complicate the possibility of meeting eligible young men. Farideh enrolls her daughter in various improvement courses, but Yalda’s intense timidity and physical impediments keep her from attending classes. Her brother Ehsan finds himself stifled at his job in a local ...
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