Films of the 3rd Annual Iranian Film Festival- San Francisco: September 18-19, 2010
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~ All films have English subtitles, if they are not in English ~

Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco© is an annual event showcasing the independent feature and short films made by or about the Iranians from around the world.
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Fakhri Korvash, Iranian stage and screen actress, started her film career in 1955 with a film called “For You,” directed by Jamshid Sheibani. She has been one of the sought after actresses on stage and screen in the history of Iranian cinema and theater. She has played in some of the most memorable and best films since the 1950s.
 
Mrs. Khorvash will be present at the screening of “Prince Ehtejab” for her tribute and the Q & A, and during the festival to meet her fans.

 

Filmography:

Yek boos-e koochooloo (2005), Bogzar zendegi konam (1986), Taraj (1985), Malakh-zadegan (1984),  The Scarecrow (1984), Dada (1982), Parvaz dar ghafas (1980), Zemzeme-ye mohabbat (1980),  Ghobar Neshinha (1978), Sooteh-Delan (1978), Shatranje bad (1976), Vaghti ke aseman beshkafad (1976), Shazdeh Ehtejab (1974), Nefrin (1973), Hasan siah (1972), Aghaye Hallou (1970), Tolu (1970), The Nobody (1960), We Are All Sinners (1959), South of the City [Jonube shahr] (1958), The Generous Pauper [Late javanmard] (1958), Bohloul (1958)

 Prince Ehtejab (Shazdeh Ehtejab)

Director: Bahman Farmanara, Story: Houshang Golshiri, Iran, 1974, 93 minutes, Cast: Jamshid Mashayekhi, Fakhri Khorvash, Nouri Kasraee, Vali Shirandami, Hossein Kasbian, Parvin Soleimani, F.Behjat Mohamadi 

 

Based on a famous novel by the late Houshang Golshiri the film is about the last of a Ghajar Dynasty, but in reality was a very strong indictment of monarchy. When the film won the Best Film prize at the Third International Film Festival of Tehran the passage of getting a release permit was made easier, although still the scissors of censorship took about five minutes out of the film.

Set during the final years of the Qajar dynasty (1795-1925), Prince Ehtejab offers a searing look at the end of a world and lifestyle. Dying of tuberculosis, Ehtejab spends his days locked up in his palace, wandering its corridors and aurveying his possessions, Haunted by memories of his family’s and his own brutality, he’s even visited by the ghosts of his father and grandfather, who taunt him with charges that he has betrayed his heritage. Houshang Golshiri’s acclaimed novel was powerfully adapted by Farmanara and the novelist himself, brilliantly capturing the shifts between physical reality and the private world the Prince increasingly inhabits. The film won the Grand Prize at the Tehran Film Festival, and was one of the first Iranian films to be widely screened internationally.


Bahman Farmanara



Bahman Farmanara's first film, Prince Ehtejab, is somewhat reminiscent of Satyajit Ray's The Music Room as it observes the declining days of a wealthy man, living in a painful solitude in his mansion. Knowing that he must soon die, the Prince recalls the extravagant regimes of both his father and grandfather, who were directly related to the Qajars, the former royal family of Iran.  Farmanara shows how each generation has taken cruelty a step forward, from the crude anger of the grandfather to the ruthless psychological torture inflicted on his wife by the Prince himself. The dialogue is full of pretty ironies, the compositions are arresting, and the atmosphere of the old house is perfectly conveyed.

Farmanara won the Grand Prix at the Tehran International Film Festival in 1974 for Prince Ehtejab and the film's closing shot, of the doomed man slowly descending a spiral staircase into the dark bowels of his mansion, is hard to forget.

Space Tourists

Director: Christian Frei, Switzerland, 2009, 98 minutes, Cast: Anousheh Ansari, Jonas Bendiksen, Dumitru Popescu


 
In his most recent work, Christian Frei turns to an age-old dream of man: to leave our planet as a «normal person» and travel into outer space. For 20 million dollars, the Iranian-American Anousheh Ansari was able to fulfil her childhood dream and becomes the first female space tourist. This documentary follows her journey from rigorous training in Star City, Kazakhstan, into space and shows everyday life as it is on the International Space Station.
 


“Swiss director Christian Frei obtains extraordinary access to people and places behind the scenes of the space tourism industry. Filming locations include Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, France, and the International Space Station. He includes footage of space tourists taste-testing food, undergoing survival training, and struggling to get into their space suits.

Festivals: Sundance 2010, HotDocs,  Sydney Film Festival, Zurich Film Festival, London International Documentary Festival...

Christian Frei



Christian Frei was born in 1959 in Schönenwerd, Switzerland. He studied visual media in the Department of Journalism and Communication at the University of Fribourg. He made his first documentary in 1981. Since 1984 he has been working as an independent filmmaker and producer. In 1997 he produced his first feature length documentary, RICARDO, MIRIAM Y FIDEL, the portrait of a Cuban family torn between loyalty to revolutionary ideals and the desire to emigrate to the United States.
In 2001, this is followed by, the portrait of James Nachtwey, whom Frei accompanied to various places of war. This film is nominated for an Oscar in the category of «Documentary Feature» and receives twelve international awards.


A Very Close Encounter

Director: Esmaeel Mihandoust, Iran, 2009, 100 minutes, Cast: Ladan Mostofi, Anahita Nemati, Hamidreza Pegah, Soroosh Sehat, Shahrokh Forootanyan


 
A car accident creates a suspicious for the investigator to find out the cause and the events that led to the accident...while discovering deep emotional and personal relationships among the characters. It is about a friendship that goes sour as the story widens through the detective findings.


Esmaeel Mihandoust



Born 1955 in Khoi, Iran; graduated from the Tehran Commerce University (1977) and Experimental Film Foundation (1991). Directed some short films [Me, Rear Window and Hitch; Phobia, 13th Hour], and many TV serials [The Adventures of House Number 13, The Moon and the Fire, The Old House, The Neighborhood Attorney, Intimate Enemies, Yek Tir Do Neshan] before directing his first feature film: A Very Close Encounter. He has written many articles on cinema for various publications and has thought at colleges in Tehran and Isfahan. He has also written two books titled: New World New Cinema, and Truth in Documentary.

Esmaeel Mihandoust [director] and Anahita Nemati [actress] will be present at the screening of their film for the Q&A.

Salam Rugby

Director: Faramarz Beheshti, Iran/New Zealand, 2010, 61 minutes




Women's rugby in patriarchal Iran may sound like an anomaly, but as this documentary by Iranian-New Zealander Faramarz Beheshti shows, Iranian women are more than ready to dive into the nearest rock or maul if only the authorities would allow it. Following the Islamic Revolution in 1979 competitive sports for women were actively discouraged and it wasn't until the social reforms of the 90s that women started to appear on the sporting field again. Women's rugby was introduced in 2004, but shortly afterwards a change in government meant strict guidelines were reinforced.

Beheshti's film follows several teams throughout Iran as they negotiate a Kafkaesque minefield of restrictions and regulations. Practicing indoors completely covered head-to-toe and always under the watchful eye of the ever present 'security' forces, these women keep training in the forlorn hope of one day playing an actual match. This film candidly illustrates the realities of life and sport in Iran in a way that will no doubt be revelatory to rugby-mad Kiwis.


Faramarz Beheshti



Beheshti was born 51 years ago in Iran and immigrated to Italy when he was four so had little experience of his birthplace before he made Salam Rugby. Beheshti is married to a Kiwi and has lived in New Zealand with their children since 2005, where he gained a passion for the game of Rugby.

Letters to the President

Director:  Petr Lom, Germany/Czech Republic/Canada/France, 2009, 72 minutes



 
This is an observational verité film about President Ahmadinejad’s regime in Iran. Allowed to travel on several of the President’s populist trips to the countryside. During his trips, the President receives many letters – the government claims ten million – from poor Iranians asking for help. The film takes these letters to the President as its narrative thread, and as a device to provide a glimpse into an Iran that is usually not open to outsiders.

Petr Lom



Petr Lom born in 1968, in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic] is an independent documentary director and producer. Entirely self-taught, he directs, shoots and edits his own films. He is a former academic with a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard University. To anyone contemplating a career change, he says: do it as soon as possible.

 
Chasing Che

Director: Alireza Rofougaran, Iran, 2009, 78 minutes
 


Chasing Che is the account of a four-year odyssey in which an Iranian businessman switches the course of his life. Inspired by a biography of Che Guevara, which he reads and then translates into Farsi, he embarks on a long odyssey through Latin America and Europe, home movie camera in hand. His mission: to retrace Che's footsteps. In an effort to gain a greater personal understanding of Che, he looks up any of the late revolutionary's surviving friends and foes he can find.

In the process, he gains new insights into his own life. Viewing the myth of Che Guevara with an eye to his own society, he realizes the peculiarity of such a cross-cultural inspiration. Upon his return to Iran, he witnesses how the same cross cultural enthusiasm among his countrymen gives rise to an open controversy. Throughout the film, there is a process of change as he finds himself confronted by the professional challenges posed by his new endeavor and his own obsessive commitment to fulfilling the project.

Alireza Rofougaran



Alireza Rofougaran was born in Tehran, Iran; June 1965. He was a businessman until 2004, when he changed careers to make his first film: Chasing Che, inspired by reading and translating Jon Lee Anderson’s biography: Che Guevara; A Revolutionary life. He has also taken acting parts in several films, including an interactive video of Anna Gutto’s New York play: “IN SECURITY” April 2009. Alireza Rofougaran currently lives in Tehran, translating books and making documentary films.

The Final Word (Kalame Akhar)

Director: Moslem Mansouri, Iran, 2009, 55 minutes



Ahmad Shamlou, the most prominent and influential contemporary Iranian poet, worked extensively in the area of folklore culture and language which have tremendously affected the current folklore language and literature in Iran.

Shamlou in his poetry spoke consciously of human’s suffering, injustice, love and romance. Through his distinctive possession of language and words, he skillfully sided with the oppressed and opposed cruel regimes and their inhumane institutions. Shamlou in his poems echoed the hardships and visions of his people and in doing so; his pen was his best means.

Moslem Mansouri



Moslem Mansouri was born in 1964 in Iran. In 1981, because of his political views, was arrested and imprisoned for two years. He began working in Iranian cinema magazines in 1991 and published a book, “Cinema and literature”. In the same year he studied film in the Faculty of Art, Azad University, for one year. From 1994 to 1998, Mansouri, under the pretext of media work, secretly produced eight documentary films about the lives of the people in the theocratic rule of Iran.
“The Final Word” is Mansouri’s second and newest film on Ahmad Shamlou. The first was: Shamlou, the poet of freedom.


Diplomacy

Director: Jon Goldman, US, 2009, 9 minutes, Cast: Michelle Forbes, Navid Neghaban, Omid Abtahi, Nazanin Boniadi

The U.S. Secretary of State (Michelle Forbes, True Blood) is meeting the Iranian Foreign Minister for the first high-level diplomatic talks between the two countries in 30 years. Each has an interpreter: on the American side, a young man of Iranian descent; on the Iranian side, an equally bilingual young woman. But as the diplomats dig in their heels, it soon falls to the interpreters to keep negotiations on track, making outright policy revisions far beyond their authority. Will their unique approach bring about mutual understanding – or nuclear disaster?

Based on a topical subject, the film brings up the latent lack of understanding between Iran and the United States and calls a general question on a possible dialogue between the two countries. Through a lucid sense of irony, the film suggests that, sometimes, moving a few words could change things, as diplomatic relations often hang by the subtle thread of rhetoric.

- Winner of the Audience Award at the Paris Film Festival.

Jon Goldman

Jon Goldman is a screenwriter, director, and translator who lives in Los Angeles. His first short film, Kind of a Blur, played over 25 film festivals worldwide. Jon has been an Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Nicholl Fellowship Finalist and Netflix Find Your Voice Film Competition Finalist. Diplomacy is his second short film. His first short film, Kind of a Blur, starred Sandra Oh enjoyed similar acclaim.

Warring Factions

Director: Justin Mashouf, US/Iran, 2009, 78 minutes

An American-born Iranian breakdancer finds cultural awakening by exploring his multi-ethnic roots. Faced with dual nationality in two conflicting countries, he travels to Iran to examine the political issues first-hand while exploring his cultural identity with a group of Iranian b-boys. By combining documentary and studio reenactments, Warring Factions looks at the blurring of world borders, and the looming threat of another war in the Middle East.


 Justin Mashouf



Justin Mashouf is based in Los Angeles where he works in television news and independent film.  Justin is a graduate of University of Arizona, where he graduated with a bachelor of fine arts in Media Arts in 2008.  Justin works extensively on the topics of identity and Muslims in America. In early 2007 he produced and co-directed the 20 minute short narrative "The Runners" about a married couple involved in a Mexican human trafficking operation. Mashouf began working on Warring Factions in April of 2007 as his first feature length film project, sponsored by the University of Arizona.  He traveled to Iran for 5 weeks in order to shoot half of the film while the other half was filmed in Arizona.  Warring Factions has screened at several international film festivals.  Mashouf is currently working on a documentary about Muslims in the US prison system, filming, and writing letters to Muslim Americans in prisons in multiple US states.

Door

Director: Adel Yaraghi, Iran 2009, 3 minutes 
 



A look at the confrontational treatment of the issue of Hijab in the past 50 years…   

Adel Yaraghi, born in 1968, studied filmmaking at Loyola Marymount and holds BFA, BA. He has been making films in the U.S. and Iran since 1998.

Rapping In Tehran
                                                
    Director: Hassan Khademi, Iran, 2009, 37 minutes

 

How many Iranian rappers can you remove in one single day, if you are convinced that hip hop should be forbidden? Close to a hundred, if you are as efficient as the Iranian police?–?but in a country where youth is irreversibly taking over the country, the result is simply that hundreds of new rappers are seeking out the illegal studios in Tehran to try their hand at the difficult and controversial art of Persian rap. ‘Rapping in Tehran’ follows the dangerous cat-and-mouse play and gives us a unique, kaleidoscopic look at the underground culture that is Iranian hip hop?–?underground despite the fact that several million young Iranians are listening to the music today. The authorities are upholding their ban and rappers are continuing to organize illegal concerts, from which the film gets its unforgettable, life-affirming images of young girls in headscarves and heavy makeup dancing away to the heavy beats of the music. ‘Rapping in Tehran’ is a unique contemporary document?–?and news from the front of a musical youth rebellion.
 


Hassan Khademi graduated with MA of Arts from University of Tehran and has conducted several research projects about Iranian underground music.

Bakhtiari Alphabet

Directors: Cima Sedigh [In Person] & Reza Ghadyani, Iran/US, 2009, 56 minutes



 Set in the breathtaking Zagros Mountains of southwest Iran. Bakhtiari Alphabet documents the seasonal migration of the proud, ancient Bakhtiari tribe as they face challenges and celebrate daily triumphs, in their struggle to maintain their richly textured culture in the face of the 21st century encroachments on its practices and traditions.
This film follows a nomadic community in Iran, providing cultural insight and engaging issues related to the challenges of educating children. It reveals both the struggle and humanity of this rapidly disappearing culture.

                                                                                                    
Cima Sedigh

A professor of education at Sacred Heart University since 1999, Cima Sedigh’s work has been inspired by the resolutions of the United Nations on Peace Education and Equity Education.  Her work aims to promote a global vision through understanding and appreciating diversity.  She has followed this path in numerous research projects, art exhibits, symposia, cultural events and in her film making.  Her first documentary “Bakhtiari Alphabet” was made during extensive trips to the rugged and remote region of Iran where the Bakhtiari live and migrate.  This film, which took more than 7 years to make, brings to life her on-site research on tribal life and education among this proud and beautiful people.  In the process, she learned to wear many hats, that of producer, director, editor, logistics chief etc. due to her meager budget.  But the challenge turned out to be rewarding and transformational for her life.

Reza Ghadyani

Reza Ghadyani, born in Iran in 1974, came to film through his love of theater and movies.  He started acting at age 12 and had his first professional role (in Shakespeare’s Hamlet) at 16.  From a young age, he has been involved in the production of numerous documentaries, short films and TV series in Iran in various capacities.  His forte is cinematography, still photography as well as editing.  A member of the International Center for Dialogue among Civilizations, Reza has taken part in making 1,000 minutes for a documentary series for the Center.  His collaboration with Cima Sedigh, in Tehran studio and on location, was his first feature length directorial experience.  Reza also employed his considerable cinematography talent, experience and perseverance to give “Bakhtiari Alphabet” the look and feel of a professional full-budget production, filming in extreme cold, at high altitude and in inclement weather.  Despite all the obstacles, he has succeeded to give with this film a taste of contemporary Iranian cinema to international audiences.

Naghsh e Jahan

Director: Pouria Rafiee, Iran, 2009, 14 minutes
 


An emotional trip into people’s lives at the historic Nagh e Jahan landmark in Isfahan.

7 Women

Director: Sara Rastegar, Iran/France, 2009, 52 minutes


 
Thirty years after the revolution that led to the departure of many Iranians, including that of my family to France, I returned to Iran for a trip across the country, where, in the course of my meetings with the women who stayed there, I wanted to understand the complexity of the arrangements of the people with the daily reality of its country. The time of a movie, a weaving Persian colored carpet consisting of words, facts and gestures of women from different backgrounds, the emerging patterns of a traditional lifestyle that is constantly adapting to the realities of its society.

Sara Rastegar




Born in Isphahan in 1983, Sara Rastegar left Iran at age 5 with her family. She returned 12 years later to work on several photography projects. After performing in dance and theater, she went on to study architecture in Nantes and Paris.
She made her first film, “L’ami”, in 2005 which was shown at different festivals around the world. 
 

Reza Shooting Back

Directors: Connie Rinehart & Tom Donohue, France 2009, 50 minutes
 


As one of the world's elite photojournalists, Reza has used his camera and risked his life to expose the stark realities of innocent people caught in the conflicts of war. Imprisoned and tortured - and eventually - exiled - from his native Iran, Reza's experiences have only strengthened his resolve to promote freedom of speech and justice.
 
“Reza Shooting Back” offers a riveting glimpse into the life of this courageous humanitarian as Reza recounts his powerful stories from the streets of Iran and the mountains of Afghanistan to the villages of Rwanda and his beloved family in Paris.


Connie Rinehart & Tom Donohue



Connie Rinehart and Tom Donohue, are two Washington DC based filmmakers. They are filmmakers in the traditional sense of the word - handling all creative aspects of the production: producing, shooting, editing, and writing.  Working as a two-person crew they achieve incredible intimacy with their subjects during production and in the edit room they have the advantage of working with their own material. Connie and Tom were nominated for an EMMY award in the category of "Outstanding Cultural & Artistic Programing" for Reza Shooting Back.

Reza Deghati



World famous for his intrepid explorer's style of capturing the world's most exotic places, Reza has covered most of the globe for National Geographic Magazine. Numerous films about Reza's work have been produced by National Geographic Television, most notably Frontline Diaries, which won an Emmy Award in 2002. Reza later served as Creative Director for National Geographic's most viewed documentary, Inside Mecca, in 2005. As part of its Exceptional Journeys series, National Geographic released "Reza Shooting Back" looking at Reza's career as a photojournalist, with special features highlighting his extensive humanitarian work.

Reza's images are iconic, but there's more to the award-winning photojournalist than just his camera.
Reza's photographs have been exhibited in major cities throughout the world. War+Peace (2009), an exhibit featuring thirty years worth of Reza's photojournalistic adventures, was held at the Caen Memorial (Peace Museum) in Normandy, France. One World, One Tribe, was the National Geographic Museum's first outdoor exhibition in Washington D.C., and Crossing Destinies, Reza's landmark exhibition in Paris, drew a million visitors.

The Man with Red Travel Suit

Director: Maryam Orang, Iran, 2009, 9 minutes, Cast: Mehrnoush Rahpeima, Khatere Isvand, Akram Deldadeh, Majid Irani
 


A girl among all those who are waiting for a man with red travel suit makes her mind to go after him. The contradiction of keeping waiting and moving ahead.

Maryam Orang



Maryam Orang was born in Tehran, Iran. She holds a BA in Law and now is an attorney. She's also graduated from Iranian Young Cinema Society filmmaking courses she attended in 2000. So far she has made 5 short films.

Takhti

Director: Mohammad Hassan Shahmohammadi, 2008, Iran, 24 minutes, Narrator: Manochehr Esmaeili
 



A look at Takhti's life, the most popular athlete of Iran's history; a review and analysis of the popularity and the mystery of the eternity of this mythical figure.
Gholamreza Takhti (1930-1968) was the greatest and most popular wrestler in Iranian history. He won the gold medal at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia, Silver medals at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki and the 1960 Games in Rome. He died at the young age of 37. His death still remains a mystery despite the report that he committed suicide. He is survived by his wife and son, Babak Takhti, an author and translator.

Mohammad Hassan Shahmohammadi



He was born in 1975 in Tehran; graduated in communication and has studied filmmaking by taking courses in film through workshops and experiments. He is an independent filmmaker and has been a writer and director of several fictions, experimental and short films that accepted in some national and international film festivals.

Carpet to Celestial Heavens

Director:  Hamieh Razavi, Iran, 2008, 3 minutes, Camera & Editing: Bahman Kiarostami
 



Persian carpets, suitable for any occasion.

Hamieh Razavi




Hamieh Razavi began film making by attending Abbas Kiarostami’s workshops and has made several short films since. She recently made “Taste of Shirin” which is a short documentary about the making of Kiarostami’s film Shirin.

Filmography:

Carpet to Celestial Heavens 2008                                                                                          
Taste of Shirin 2008                                                                                                             
Capricious woman 2009                                                                                                                                
The wind blows you away 2009                                                                                                                 
Flare 2010Camera Lucida 2010

Above the Gray Clouds

Director: Sare Shafipour, Iran, 2010, 8 minutes, Animation
 


One night a woman decides to follow a strange voice in her room. Her curiosity leads to finding a different world of a man who lives in the lower floor.

Sare Shafipour




She was born in 1981 Kerman/ Iran. She produced her first animation in Saba studio in Tehran, when she was 17. Then she started to study graphic in university of Tehran. She produced her second animation ( SAMA DANCE) as her final project and then graduated from Tehran university in 2004. She continued her studies and got her masters of arts in animation from university of Tarbiat Modares (T.M.U). She produced her last animation (ABOVE THE GRAY CLOUDS) in 2010 as her final project in T.M.U. Filmography: Sama Dance (2004); Above The Gray Clouds (2010)
 

The Wind Plays as it Wishes

Director: Pouya Parsamagham, Iran, 2009, 4 minutes



An elderly couple takes an afternoon nap on a summer’s day…

Pouya Parsamagham studied graphics and attended several workshops of Abbass Kiarostami and has been making short films since.

How Green Was Our Valley

Director:  Fereshteh Joghataei, Iran, 2009, 32 minutes
 


A dam has been built and the water is rising and 63 villages will be flooded and their residents must leave. There is a holy shrine in one of the villages and people of the villages and people are waiting for a miracle.

Fereshteh Joghataei



Fereshteh Joghataei - born in Tehran, 1977. Graduate of Puppetry from Tehran Sooreh University. Working as performance and designer of special effects, continuity, make-up artist, set and costume designer of the different films.

Filmography:

2009 How Green was our Valley (Director)
2002 Tokyo, Non Stop (Saeid Alam Zadeh) - Special Effects
2003 The Riverside (Ali Reza Amini) - As backstage projection director
2004 Empty Hands (Abdolreza Kahani) - As backstage projection director for film
2006 A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral (Saman Salour) - Set & Costume Design
2006 Crossing the Dust (Shawkat Amin korki) - Make-up - Continuity

Minus

Director: Kazem Mollaie, Iran, 2009, 23 minutes, Cast: Kamran Mohseni,  Mohammad Akbari, Hoda Siahtiri, Hasan Eslami Moghaddam, Amir Monji, Mojtaba Alizadeh, Mohsen Kian, Moslem Maskani, Mehdi Abbasi, Ali Eslami Moghaddam, Hasan Shams Abadi, Farzad Ahmad Poor, Mehdi Sanaie, Hamid Zareyian, Hosein Fadaie 
 


Minus is a fiction and at the same time an experimental movie, which doesn't enjoy any distinct geography, language and time ... The events occur in a razor producing company, in which a young and simple retainer is working, who has special capabilities ... He knows telepathy and he can read the minds of all people and even things ... Most of the time, his predictions increase his ability of presentiment …


Kazem Mollaie



Kazem Mollaie was born in 1981, in Sabzevar, Iran. He is a member of the “Iranian Young Cinema Society " - 1998; started film making with a short film called " From game to ... " 1999; he is a member of "Iranian Short Film Association " - Khane Cinema – 2009

Filmography:

- From game to… / 2000 / short film / 14 min
- Tel / 2000 / short film / 20 min
- The wind is blowing in the Alley / 2002 / Fiction / 40 min
- Akbar,For God Sake, don't die before me! / 2003 / experimental / 38 min
- Carmen Funebre / 2005 / Short-documentary / 21 min
- Please stay away from the red line / 2008 / Short Film / 30 min
- Minus / 2009 / Short Film / 23 min

The Man Whom I Don't Know

Director: Ayda Tatari, Iran, 2009, 10 minutes, Cast: Noshin Noshiravani, Amir Mirzadeh 
 


When a woman sees her man with another woman, she undesirably falls to a dark endless labyrinth, in which she would be alone and… unfaithful.


Ayda Tatari



Born in 1980, Mashhad, Iran. Against her families' wishes when she was 12 years old she started to write poems and short stories with a passion for the cinema. After a lot of quarrels at home she finally started studying Film Directing at Soureh University. After receiving her B.A., she started her M.A. studies on Dramatic Literature at college of fine arts at Tehran University. During her studies she won three writing prizes from Short Stories Festival and wrote some screen plays which were made by other directors, "Roof" and "Woman" and continued making her own films, documentary and fiction short subjects. Presently, she is working on her M.A theses, which is about connection between myth and Iranian new dramatic literature and screen plays. She wants to start directing her new screen play which is about women and their loneliness in this world, like her other works.

Roof Top (Poshte Bam)

Director: Hooman Mansouri, Iran, 2008, 14 minutes, Cast: Maryam Meschian, Saeed Changizian
 


Maryam, doesn't trust her husband, so she manages to spy on him from the roof of the adjacent building, but her plan gets to nowhere...

Hooman Mansouri

Born in 1982, in Tehran, Iran. At the age of 15, he attended the practical high school of Iranian National TV, which provided him with amateur experience in film production. Started university in 2001 at Sooreh University and graduated in film directing in 2006. Since 2001, he has been working on several projects in the Iranian film industry as a production manager over 15 short films. Film Editor of over 30 short films, TV programs and video arts. Cinematographer for 8 documentaries and TV programs. Director of 6 short films, including "Roof Top"- and documentaries and music concerts. He's also an experienced photographer since 1998.

Tongue of the Hidden

Director: David Anderson, UK, 2008, 6 minutes
 


'Tongue of the Hidden' is a film based on a hand printed Artist's book by Jila Peacock that contains ten love poems from the collected works, or Divan of Hafez, the fourteenth-century Persian metaphysical poet from Shiraz, whose work is accepted as expressing some of the central ideas of Sufism, the spiritual aspect of Islam.

The whole Persian text of each poem has been designed in the shape of an animal mentioned by Hafez in the text, and set alongside a modern English translation by the artist herself. A conventional transcription in Persian script, appears at the end of the book.

Jila Peacock was born in Iran, studied medicine and fine art in London, then moved to Glasgow in 1990. Her paintings have been widely exhibited in shows across the UK. In her latest book, Ten Poems from Hafez, her calligraphic images of animals are entirely formed from the original Farsi script of the poems. The work was exhibited in the 2006 British Museum exhibition entitled Word into Art.


David Anderson




As a director, his work has encompassed theatre, dance, animation, live action, television and film. He trained at Bath Academy of Art and the National Film and Television School in England. His first film, ‘Dreamland Express’ won a British Academy Award. The next film, ‘Dreamless Sleep’ won the Hiroshima Peace prize. His other films have won numerous other awards including The McLaren Award at the Edinburgh Festival, first prize at Melbourne Film Festival, The Silver Mikeldi at Bilbao, San Francisco Golden Gate Award, Chicago Golden Plaque as well as the Grand Prix at Charleston. He collaborated with the writer Russell Hoban and produced two films, ‘Deadsy’ and ‘Door’, British Animation Awards DVD - ‘Classic British Animation’ and are also in collections at the metropolitan Museum New York , Hiroshima , Oberhausen and the British Film Institute.


Iran: A Nation of Bloggers

Directors: Aaron Chiesa, Toru Kageyama, Hendy Sukarya, Lisa Temes, Canada, 2009, 3 minutes

An exploration of how the digital world allows many Iranians access to ideas and freedom of expression they haven't had for close to thirty years. Blogging is, in essence, a means of revolution.

 

Toru Kageyama is an Illustrator born in Japan, he studied Oil Painting at Tama Art University. Since then he has worked as a graphic designer in both Japan and Vancouver. Aaron Chiesa is Swiss Italian. He started his creative journey studying cinematography in Milan; there he spent most of his time working in film, commercials and documentaries. Born and raised in Vancouver, Lisa Temes studied print design and worked as a freelance designer for 2 years before deciding it was time to branch out into other mediums. Hendy Sukarya born in Indonesia, he studied multimedia design at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in Singapore before moving to Canada to attend Vancouver Film School’s Digital Design program.

Tehran Kitchen
                                    
Director: Pola Schirin Beck, Germany, 2009, 17 minutes
 


Between 600 kebab a day, nagging students and an over salted soup: Three cooks and a kitchen help in the small university canteen in Tehran working with wit and irony while doing their duties on the market and in the kitchen, philosophizing about cooking and about life in general....In this rather unpretentious micro cosmos you will get to know more about the private moments and interesting views in this small parallel universe.


Pola Schirin Beck



Born in Berlin in 1982, after various jobs and directing internships in the film industry she spent a year at the international European Film College in 2003. She took up studies in directing at the "Konrad Wolf" College of Film and Television Potsdam- Babelsberg in 2005 and also works as a portrait photographer.

Paradise

Director: Ahang Bashi, Sweden, 2010, 28 minutes, Documentary

 

Eighty eight years old Simin from Iran is living in a nursing home for the elderly in Sweden. She doesn't speak any Swedish and the nursing staff can't understand her. Her everyday life is bombarded with tragicomical misunderstandings, but despite this Simin tries to remain a positive outlook on life. "Paradise" is a touching documentary about an Iranian woman’s encounter with the Swedish elderly care and tells with great sensibility and humor about our need to be understood.

Ahang Bashi



Ahang Bashi was born 1984 in Shiraz, Iran. She migrated with her family at the age of 3 to Sweden. She studied social anthropology at the university for 2 years before discovered filmmaking.  "Paradise" is Ahang Bashi's debut and has won prizes for best new director and best international student production at Nordic film festivals. "Paradise" is also nominated for Best Nordic Youth Film at NUFF 2010. Ahang is currently studying for a bachelor of fine arts in documentary filmmaking at university college Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm.

Border

Director: Sattar Chamani Gol, Iran, 2009, 10 minutes, Cast: Korosh Ahmadi, Anita Jaafari   
 


An Iraqi family, while taking their bride from Iran, confront the border patrol and he prevents them from crossing the border. They are forced to pass a deviated path to return to their own country.

Sattar Chamani Gol




Sattar Chamani Gol has made 8 short films, five fictions and three documentaries and has won numerous awards at various international film festivals.

Plastic Flowers Never Die

Director: Roxanne Varzi, US/Iran, 2008, 33 minutes


 
The war with Iraq was the largest mobilization of the Iranian population, achieved primarily by producing and promoting a culture of martyrdom based on religious themes found in Shii Islam. Martyrdom became state policy. Khomeini made it clear the war was a spiritual one that the people, and not a professional army, would fight. Over 800,000 people died.

Roxanne Varzi

Roxanne Varzi was born in Tehran (to an American mother and an Iranian father) and moved to the U.S. after the Revolution. She has spent the last 16 years traveling back to Iran researching, writing about and filming post-war Iran. In 2000 she was awarded the first Fulbright fellowship after the Revolution for research in Iran.  She has a PhD in anthropology from Columbia University and is an assistant professor of anthropology and film and media studies at the University of California Irvine. She is the author of Warring Souls, Media, Martyrdom and Youth in post-Revolution Iran, Duke University Press, 2006.  She has published widely on Iranian popular culture, the culture of the Iran-Iraq war and Iranian cinema, her work has appeared in the London Review of Books, The New York Press and Eastern Art Report.  She is also the author of a number of published short stories.  This is her first film.