Films Week of Saturday, January 25, 2025-Friday, January 31, 2025
Gauguin in the World Through February 16, 2025
The MFAH is the only U.S. venue for this ambitious exhibition showcasing the work of French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin.
25 Jan Sat / 2025
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The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Danaye anjir-e moabad)
7 p.m.—10 p.m.Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof was facing eight years in prison for creating films that criticized the government, before his narrow escape to exile in Europe. Shot entirely in secret, Rasoulof’s award-winning thriller centers on a family thrust into the public eye when one of them is appointed as an investigating judge in Tehran.
26 Jan Sun / 2025
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6 A.M. (Sa’ate 6 Sobh)
2 p.m.—3:30 p.m.Sara lives in Tehran and has been accepted by a doctoral program in philosophy at a Canadian university. She has a 6 a.m. flight to catch, but her friends have planned one last party before she leaves Iran. What follows is a tense social drama depicting a group of people celebrating their friend’s success while the guest of honor worries about her early flight the next day.
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Universal Language (Une langue universelle)
5 p.m.—6:30 p.m.Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin and Iranian writers Ila Firouzabadi and Pirouz Nemati won the inaugural Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award at Cannes for this absurdist comedy that variously evokes the films of Abbas Kiarostami, Wes Anderson, and Guy Maddin.
31 Jan Fri / 2025
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My Stolen Planet (Sayyareye dozdide shodeye man)
7 p.m.—8:30 p.m.Using the essayistic style of a diary, director Farahnaz Sharifi traces how the Islamic Revolution changed life for women in Iran. Born in 1979, shortly after the fall of the Pahlavi dynasty, Sharifi draws on home movies and found 8mm recordings of strangers’ lives to show moments of private joy and public defiance under the regimented oppression in Tehran.
