Iranian Film Festival
Iranian cinema has evolved in many ways since Houston’s annual film festival—the longest-running annual MFAH event—was established two decades ago. This year’s selections include comedy, drama, and an acclaimed documentary. The 20th Iranian Film Festival also features screenings at Rice Cinema February 1–2.
For information about a related performance at the Asia Society Texas Center on January 24, click here.
Generous support has been provided by the ILEX Foundation.
The MFAH film department is supported by Tenaris; The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; The Consulate General of the Republic of Korea; Nina and Michael Zilkha; the National Film Preservation Foundation; Franci and Jim Crane; James V. Derrick; Ms. Melanie Gray and Mr. Mark Wawro; and Lynn S. Wyatt.
Community partners: The Society of Iranian American Women for Education; Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans (PAAIA) Houston Chapter, and the Iranian Cultural Foundation-Houston.
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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Vorood Aghayan Mamnoo
2011, in Farsi with English subtitles
Directed by Rambod Javan
"There’s something irresistible about this comic farce set in an all-girls high school that has never permitted a man to cross the threshold. Against her better judgment, sternly protective spinster principal Ms. Darabi is forced to hire a male substitute teacher to coach her chemistry team for the big tournament against an all-boys school. Chaos ensues, and it’s played for laughs galore, with every goofy battle-of-the-sexes stereotype dusted off and made new again in an Iranian context. First-time director Rambod ...
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Aynehaye Rooberoo
2011, in Farsi with English subtitles
Directed by Negar Azarbeyjani
First-time filmmaker Nega Azabayjani explores trans-identity in contemporary Iran. Adineh, who chooses to live as Eddie, belongs to a wealthy family whose patriarch is both ashamed and humiliated by his daughter’s wish to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Although the operation is legal in Iran, Eddie wishes to have it performed in Germany and must escape her family’s clutches to fulfill that desire. Along the way, Eddie hires a female taxi driver—whose husband is in debtors’ prison—to drive as far as ...
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2012
Directed by Till Schauder
The Iran Job follows American basketball player Kevin Sheppard as he accepts a job to play in Iran. With tensions running high between Iran and the West, Kevin tries to separate sports from politics only to find that politics is impossible to escape in Iran. Along the way he forms an unlikely alliance with three outspoken Iranian women. Thanks to these women, his apartment turns into an oasis of free speech, where they discuss everything from politics to religion to ...
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Fasle kargadan
2012, in Farsi and Turkish with English subtltes
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi
"A haunting love story spanning three decades is the latest from the director of A Time for Drunken Horses and No One Knows About Persian Cats [shown at the MFAH in 2010]. Rhino Season is based on the tragic story of a Kurdish poet who was unjustly incarcerated during Iran's Islamic Revolution. The victim of a personal vendetta, Sahel (Behrouz Vossoughi) is thrown into prison along with his devoted wife Mina (Monica Bellucci). Inexplicably released after serving a 10-year sentence, ...
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Paziraie Sadeh
2012, in Farsi with English subtltes
Directed by Mani Haghighi
Winning awards at film festivals in Berlin and India, Modest Reception stars director Mani Haghighi and Taraneh Alidoosti (who starred in About Elly, which screened at the MFAH in 2011) as a couple distributing bags of cash to need people in the surrounding provinces. The film demonstrates how far the impoverished citizens are willing to sell out for a bag of money offered by the wealthy couple from the city. “Mani Haghighi and Taraneh Alidoosti . . . pull out ...
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