Iranian new wave cinema: A few kilos of date for a funeral (2006)

Sunday December 7th 2014, Iranian new wave cinema: A few kilos of date for a funeral ( چند کیلو خرما برای مراسم تدفین) by Saman Salur (2006, 85 minutes), in Persian with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Synopsis: Sadry and Yadi work at a petrol station removed from the main traffic routes since the building of a ring road. It is winter and heavy snow lies on the ground. Sadry, a former performing strongman who accidentally lost an eye, is behaving strangely. He takes off from time to time and seems obsessed with the weather. Yadi is in love with a girl from a nearby town and sends her passionate letters via the local postman. Sadry and Yadi occasionally receive a visit from Orooj, the neighbourhood undertaker, their only contact with the exterior.

Director’s statement: The idea of this film, originally under a different title, came to me during my studies. At the time I often travelled from Tehran to my home town, Boroujerd, in the south-west of Iran. I often thought of the petrol station that was once situated along the highway and whose prosperity had disappeared with the building of a ring road. I also thought of likable outsiders such as Sadry and Yadi, left on the margins of society and forgotten by the rest of the world. The fate of such people has always fascinated me. I often dreamt as the film began to take shape and as my dreams were often colourless and grey, I decided to shoot in black and white. The close cooperation of my friend Touraj Aslani as director of photography was of utmost importance to me. The actors Mohsen Tanabandeh, Nader Fallah, Mahmoud Nazaralian and Hassan Rashid Ghamat are no strangers to cameras, the latter also doubling as film editor and short-film director. Mohsen Namjou who plays the role of the postman is a composer in real life. As snow was an essential element of the story, I must admit that Mother Nature also had her role to play.
“A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral” is a story of ordinary people with all their qualities and defects……but it is above all a story of love.

More info: http://www.dreamlabfilms.com/a-few-kilos-of-dates-for-a-funeral/ […Lees verder]

Movie Night – A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)

Sunday August 17th 2014. A Time for Drunken Horses by Bahman Ghobadi, 2000, 85 minutes. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Kurdish Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi grew up during the devastating Iran-Iraq War, which killed several of his relatives. After starting out in photography, he began attracting attention in his twenties from his short documentary films about Kurdish life. After serving as Abbas Kiarostami’s assistant director on The Wind Will Carry Us (Bād Mā-ra- Khāhad Bord, 1997), he expanded the theme of one of his short documentary films, Life in Fog, to make his first feature film, A Time for Drunken Horses (Zamani Barayé Masti Asbha, 2000). The film, about the harsh circumstances of an impoverished Kurdish family near the Iran-Iraq border where the local economy subsists around the dangerous smuggling trade, was an immediate sensation and multi-award winner, including the FIPRESCI critics prize and the Camera D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
[…Lees verder]

Movie night about Afghan refugees in Iran: “Three, Four Days Ago” & “Baran”

Sunday June 1st 2014, Movie night about Afghan refugees in Iran. Short film: “Three, Four Days Ago” By “Dornaz Hajiha” (2011). Feature film: “Baran” by Majid Majidi (2001). Films with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Baran – After the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, over 1.4 million Afghans fled to Iran seeking sanctuary and work. In this extraordinarily spiritual drama by Majid Majidi (*Children of Heaven, The Color of Paradise*), the plight of these refugees is vividly portrayed. They are strangers in a strange land forced to make do in dire circumstances after the loss of everything near and dear to them.
Synopsis: In a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat’s secret changes both their lives. […Lees verder]

Eenhorn Filmavond presents: A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)

Sunday April 27th 2014, Eenhorn Filmavond presents: A Separation (جدایی نادر از سیمین) Directed by Asghar Farhadi, 2011, 123 minutes, in Persian with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Nader and Simin argue about living abroad. Simin prefers to live abroad to provide better opportunities for their only daughter, Termeh. However, Nader refuses to go because he thinks he must stay in Iran and take care of his father, who suffers from Alzheimers. However, Simin is determined to get a divorce and leave the country with her daughter. […Lees verder]

Movie Night: Half Moon

Sunday March 2nd 2014, Movie Night: Half Moon by Bahman Ghobadi (2006, 114′). With ENglish subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

Mamo, an old renowned Kurdish musician, has begun a journey to Iraq with his sons to perform a concert after the fall of Saddam Hossein. Kako, a middle-aged man and a huge fan of Mamo’s, enthusiastically escorts them in an orange mini bus which he has borrowed from a friend. Mamo gathers his sons one by one from different areas. The last son who joins the team insists on speaking to Mamo in private. He explains to Mamo that the Wise man of the village has predicted that Mamo should not go on the trip because, as the full moon nears, something awful will happen to him. Mamo persists on continuing his journey. He claims that he must continue his trip despite all the obstacles because he was not allowed to perform in Iraq for many years. Mamo intends to take Hesho, a female singer who lives with 1334 other women in exile, as part of his team. But the strength of Hesho’s voice has dwindled along with her self confidence. While crossing the borders, Mamo’s team faces many difficulties as their journey is wrought with adventure and disaster each step of the way. […Lees verder]

Movie night: No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009)

Sunday June 16th 2013, Movie night: No One Knows About Persian Cats (Bahman Ghobadi, Iran, 2009, 106 min.) Persian with English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begins at 9pm.

NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS is the fifth feature by awardwinning director Bahman Ghobadi, winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the Cannes film festival. Co—written by imprisoned Iranian—American journalist Roxana Saberi, the film is an indictment of cultural repression in Iran’s exciting underground music scene, a powerful cinematic foreshadowing of current protest movements, and a celebration of an entire generation of Iranians striving towards personal and creative freedom. Shot in secret and featuring extraordinary performances by real underground bands, follows a pair of young musicians, recently released from prison, on a mission to take their rock band to Europe. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan their escape abroad with a fast—talking music promoter. Vowing to play one last show before leaving Tehran, their dangerous mission takes them on a free—wheeling journey through the City’s vibrant and diverse underground scene, home to an estimated 2,000 illegal independent bands. […Lees verder]

Kurdish Iranian movie night, Bahman Ghobadi

Sunday February 17th 2013, Movie night: Turtles Can Fly (Bahman Ghobadi, Kurdistan, Iran, 2004, 95 min). English subtitles. Door open at 20pm, film begins at 21:00.

A social drama concerning the life of children in Kurdistan of Iraq near the Iraqi-Turkish border before the US invasion of Iraq. Born in 1969 in Baneh, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, Bahman Ghobadi is an internationally acclaimed Iranian Kurd director who has been living in exile for several years. A socially inclined and politically outspoken artist, Ghobadi first came to the movie world’s attention in 2000, when his “Time for Drunken Horses” won the prize for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival. Drunken Horses was the first Kurd film in the history of Iran and also the first feature-length film in Kurdish, a tongue banned in Iranian schools since the 1940s, to achieve an international release. […Lees verder]

Monday August 2d: Solidarity night for Anti-War activists imprisoned in Iran

Sarah, Shane & Josh: three anti-war activists from US have been held in an Iranian prison, without charges, for nearly a year. Through their films, photography, writing and lives the three have spent years contesting US aggression in the Middle East and around the world.
The US government has done little to get them out, so now it’s up to us.

[…Lees verder]