Films of the 2nd Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco: September 19-20, 2009
Four Wives One Man
Director: Nahid Persson ~ 76 minutes ~ Sweden/Iran
From Nahid Persson, the filmmaker of the award winning Prostitution Behind the Veil, comes an intimate portrait of a polygamist family in a rural Iranian village. Persson reveals the intricacies of the relationships between the four wives, their husband, their astoundingly free-spoken mother in- law and their numerous children. Sometimes humorous and often heartbreaking, this film follows the daily lives of the wives whose situation has turned them into both bitter rivals and coconspirators against their abusive husband.
Persson’s camera unobtrusively and beautifully captures the range of the family’s interactions – from peaceful, pastoral scenes of a family picnic, to the temporary chaos caused by a broken faucet in the kitchen, to a furtive, whispered conversation between two wives about the latest beating. The women’s work – making bread, weaving carpets, milking and herding the sheep – provide the background to their frank conversations. Avoiding sensationalism and sentimentality, this film provides unique insights into the practice of polygamy and its effect on the women involved.
Print Source: Women Make Movies, 462 Broadway, Ste 500, New York, NY 10013, 212-925-0606 x 305 l 212-925-2052
Queen & I
Director: Nahid Persson ~ 90 minutes ~ Sweden
Two Iranian exiles, a left-wing filmmaker and the deposed Shah's widow, Queen Farah, form an unlikely bond in this illuminating and compassionate documentary about life after the Islamic revolution.
Print Source: Shane Griffin, Seventh Art Releasing, 1614 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles CA, 90046, seventhart@7thart.com
Nahid Persson
Colors of Memory
Director: Amir Shahab Razavian ~ 102 minutes ~ Iran/Germany/Canada
Cast: Shahbaz Noshir, Ezatollah Entezami, Saber Abar, Reza Khamseh, Roya Javidnia
Filled with denial and distrust, heart surgeon Dr. Bahman Parsa (Shahbaz Noshir) returns to his home country Iran after 30 years in Germany. There he meets two men who will change his attitude towards life: Qanati (Ezatollah Entezami), a 70-year old waterfinder and Bahrami, a young and reckless taxi driver. Together with them he travels to his hometown Bam, which was destroyed after a heavy earthquake a few years ago. Step by step this journey brings Parsa closer to his own roots and a past that has been completely erased. But in the experiences with his new friends also lies the chance for a new beginning.
Amir Shahab Razavian was born in Tehran, Iran in 1965 and began his cinematic activities at Hamedan Filmmaking Center in 1980. He received his BA in Film Directing from the College of Theatre and Cinema of Art University Tehran in 1990; and received his MA in animation films from the same college in 1995. Since 1980 he has produced over 70 short films and has directed 30 short films as well as the feature films: Journey of the Grey Men, Tehran 7 AM, Colors of Memory…
A Conversation with ‘Gohar Kheirandish’
[In Person]
Gohar Kheirandish, actress and director, was born in 1954 in the city of Shiraz, state of Fars, Iran. She began her acting career in 1970 while in High School in association with a theater group in the city of Shiraz. Her first movie is named "Rooz haye Entezaar" [The days of waiting] that was screened in 1986. She earned her Acting and directing degree from the University of Tehran, "Daneshkadeh-ye- Honarhaye Zeeba" which translates to "The College of Beautiful Arts." This college and it's well known faculty and alumni are the most respected among all artists and art lovers in Iran as well as around the world. Her first nationally successful movie is called "Baanoo" [The Lady]. After Baanoo, her artistic career began souring to the heights seldom reached by well loved actors and it vividly set her apart from commercial only actors in the society. As of July 2009, she has starred in 41 popular movies and many popular Television Series.
Filmography:
Davat (2008) · Dayereh-e zangi (2008) · Ghaedeye bazi (2007) · Mohakemeh (2007) · Maxx (2005) · Rasm-e ashegh-koshi (2004) · Vakonesh panjom (2003) · Donya (2003) · Ertefae Past (2002) · Morabbaye shirin (2001) · Baanoo (1999) · Saghar (1997) · Chehre (1995) · Boo-ye khosh-e zendegi (1994) · Yek mard, yek khers (1994) · Rooz-e bashokooh (1989) · Zir-e bamha-ye shahr (1989) · Shakhe-haye bid (1988)
Dariush Mehrjui (The Cow, The Cycle) directs this film about a woman living a solitary life while her husband is away. Her life turns around when she finds out that her husband is having an affair. Newly liberated, she begins to experience life for the first time.
Moon Sun Flower Game
Director: Claus Strigel ~ 90 minutes ~ Sweden/Iran
Cast: Forough Farokhzad, Hossein Mansouri, Ibrahim Golestan, Farzaneh Milani
In 1962 the young Iranian poetess Forough Farrokhzad visited the lepers at the end of the earth to make a film about their world. Her film,"The House is Black', was to become world famous and change the world of a small boy who had the good fortune to meet her. Moon Sun Flower Game begins by revisiting the colony and winds its way to Münich, where exiled Iranian poet Hossein Mansouri searches for the boy and discovers a fable about his own roots and the magical power of words...
Claus Strigel was born in 1955 in Munich. Before finally changing to filmmaking as a producer, writer and director, he studied Communications and Psychology. Since 1976, he has co-directed and written together with Bertram Verhaag over 50 award-winning documentaries and feature films including: Too Much Man! (echt tu matsch!,, Nuclear Split (Spaltprozesse, documentary) The Eighth Commandment (Das Achte Gebot, documentary), Runaway, Blue Eyed (documentary), Grenzgaenger - Hans-Peter Duerr (TV), Der Agrarrebell (TV), Tote Ernte (TV), Al Barnum, The Last Man Alive (Die gruene Wolke) and many more.
Letters from America
Director: Nezam Manouchehri [In Person] ~ 90 minutes, Iran
‘Letters from America’ revolves around the saga of a father and daughter and their impressions of America upon returning to the US after so many years. It is the testimony of a western educated Iranian intellectual who having returned to Iran to raise his family after living in America for many years; has once again returned to America to witness the changes that have taken place since he lived there. It is also the testimony of his nineteen years old daughter born in America and raised in post-revolutionary Iran, who leaves home in Tehran to go to America at sixteen. In this journey we also encounter a varied array of characters both Iranians and Americans who also provide their own reflections of what America means to them. The film has been shot in DV in New York, Washington and Philadelphia on the east coast and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Arcata on the west coast of USA.
Nezam Manouchehri is a writer/photographer/filmmaker and actor (Deserted Station), born and brought up in Iran. Went to England and US for his higher education. Graduated from San Francisco Art Institute and made a number of short films. He also attended San Francisco State University where he was granted an MFA. He moved back to Iran after the war, where he is currently residing between Iran and America.
Filmography: Letters from Iran (2004), A World Between (2006), Letters from America (2008)
Iran’s Young Rebels
Producer: Michael Kearns ~ Host: Evan Solomon ~ 45 minutes ~ Canada
30 years ago they had a political revolution - but is Iran about to have a revolution of a very different kind? In an exclusive investigation, we go inside Iran to explore the secret underground world of sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. Just how far can Iran's Young Rebels change the country's religious regime?
Michael Kearns has covered news and current affairs for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation throughout North America, Asia and the Middle East. In the filming of 'Iran's Young Rebels', Kearns led the first team of Canadian journalists allowed into Iran in four years. He has also produced documentaries in China, North Korea, and Afghanistan.
Evan Solomon has worked as a journalist and writer for publications through out North America and Asia, including The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Star and The South China Morning Post. His first novel, Crossing The Distance. Solomon is the co-founder of Shift, an international award-winning magazine about technology and culture. He was the editor-in-chief from 1992 -1999. Born in Toronto, Solomon graduated from McGill University with a B.A. in English literature and a masters in religious studies.
Tehran: Another Side
Director: Sam Ali Kashani ~ 63 minutes ~ Iran/US
Like the majority of Iranian-American families that ultimately settled in California, Sam Ali Kashani’s family came to the United States after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Sam however, was thoroughly American, leading a lifestyle typical of any young Californian. Therefore, his perspective of Iran was much like most Americans, colored by skewed media portrayals and political constructions. Yet, the Tehran he observed upon his arrival was anything but what he had seen on the television: the bustling, modern city squares; the influence of Western culture on the adolescents and young professionals, and the vibrant calls for social reform. Tehran: Another Side is a tale of the dynamic city from the eyes of one Iranian-American, which strips the camera from political filtering and humanizes its people with sincerity and honesty.
Photos: ‘Bahram’ [above left], and ‘Hichkas’ [right], two popular Rappers in Iran.
Sam Ali Kashani was born in New Jersey in 1985, grew up in Los Angeles where he attended film school at California State University, Northridge. He received his B.A. in Cinema and Television Arts in 2006, and shortly after, visited Iran for the very first time. It was then that he decided the subject matter of his first project: the misconceptions people have in regards to contemporary Iranian society. The following summer, he returned to Iran where he wrote, directed, and produced his debut documentary "Tehran: Another Side". Sam's next few projects focus more on the booming underground culture in Iran, specifically the hip-hop movement taking place among the youth. Currently, Sam is a second-year medical student, however he continues to be active in producing films centered around modern-day Iranian culture.
Red Burqa
Director: Roxana Pope ~ 5 minutes ~ Scotland/Iran
Two Films by Roxana Pope
The Red Burqa worn by women in the Hormozgan region of Southern Iran. This short art documentary takes us behind the masks to reveal the lives of the women who wear them as well as take us on a visually stunning journey across the landscapes of Southern Iran.
Tehran Backyard
Director: Roxana Pope ~ 30 minutes ~ Scotland/Iran
Pari is a sixty five year old woman who lives on the outskirts of Tehran. Each day she travels over six hours into the sprawling city to work as a cleaning lady for the middle class ladies of north Tehran. Her husband is blind, she has five children and two grandchildren and she is still the main breadwinner.
Set against the backdrop of big demonstrations for Iran’s right to Nuclear Energy, we travel behind the scenes to witness the extraordinary life of Pari, a strong woman who has carried her family through many adversities.
Roxana Pope is a British Iranian writer, director and actor. Recent film work includes co-writing the feature film ‘Trouble sleeping’ (Scottish Screen/BBC) about the lives of refugees in Edinburgh. The short film ‘Leila’ she wrote about the life of Iranian asylum seekers in Scotland has been shown in film festivals world wide and was selected as top ten UK Film Council digital shorts.
A People in the Shadows
Director: Bani Khoshnoudi ~ 90 minutes ~ Iran
Almost thirty years after the revolution, and twenty since the end of the long Iran-Iraq war, A People in the Shadows takes us on a voyage into the heart of Tehran, a megalopolis of 14 million people. The city is still recovering from its past, as talk of sanctions and a possible American attack resonate. Using direct cinema methods, the film takes an intimate look at the way people live in this immense city today, caught up in the paradoxes and contradictions of their society, surrounded by images of past and future death, and finding ways to juggle state propaganda and foreign threat on a daily basis.
Bani Khoshnoudi was born in Tehran. She immigrated to the United States with her family in 1979. After studying film and photography in Austin, Texas, she moved to Paris, France, where she made short fiction and experimental works, as well as feature length documentaries. In 2004 she directed TRANSIT, a short fiction, which received the Grand Jury Prize at the Premiers Plans Angers Film Festival and played in a number of international film festivals. The film was nominated for the Jean Vigo Prize and the Prix Novaïs-Terxeira in 2005. Also in 2004, she directed SHIRIN EBADI : A simple lawyer, feature documentary commissioned by the French channel ARTE. The film played in many international festivals and on television around the world, and is part of a number of university library collections. In 2006, Bani founded her production company, and has recently produced and directed a feature length documentary about Tehran, A People in the Shadows.
Caught Between Two Worlds
Directors: Persheng Sadegh-Vaziri [In Person] & Simin Farkhondeh ~ 58 minutes ~ Iran/US
This thought-provoking documentary examines the complexities and challenges faced by a population estimated at between 600,000 to 1,000,000 Iranians who now make the USA their home. By weaving together excerpts from the lives of people living in Los Angeles, Washington, DC and in New York City, the film explores the diversity of Iranian-Americans who make up a virtual nation in exile. Many of the people featured in Caught Between Two Worlds fled Iran during the Revolution of 1979, in which the Shah was overthrown and an Islamic Republic was established. These people live and work in the USA as artists, political activists, journalists and academics—both Jewish and Muslim, young and old. The film draws attention to such issues as assimilation into a new culture, language, the traumas of revolution and the hostage crisis, religion, and life in the USA after 9/11. Caught Between Two Worlds is structured in layers, with each additional layer providing further understanding about the overall experience of what it’s like to be caught between two worlds—torn between two cultures.
1 Hour 99 Years
Directors: Negin Kianfar [In Person] & Daisy Mohr ~ 50 minutes ~ Iran/Netherlands
For most young Iranians, Tehran is a frustrating place to live. The press is censored, boys and girls are often separated and everything that has to do with sex is taboo. With sixty percent of the population under the age of thirty, authorities are getting more aware of the problems young people face. Sighe, a temporary marriage for between 1 hour and 99 years, could be a way to release some of the frustrations and give young people some room in this country where extra-marital sex remains out of the question. The issue has triggered heated debates, as many see it as legalized prostitution.
1 hour – 99 years gives an intriguing insight into the lives of people in this young, frustrated and confused society and the way old religious practices like Sighe are being used in an attempt to solve contemporary problems.
Negin Kianfar (Teheran, 1969). Studied Cinema, majoring in Direction at the Art University of Teheran, Trained factual program making in The Netherlands (RNTC). Researched and produced in Iran for VPRO Tegenlicht. Voice artist, and presented numerous current affairs series for Iranian Radio &Television (IRIB). Writing professional weblog for NOS journal.
Filmography: Deep dark blue, 1996; The Birthday, 2006; 1 hour-99 years, 2008; Eve
Daisy Mohr was born in 1978 in Amsterdam. She studied at the American University of Beirut – Beirut and received her MA in Political Economy, Political Science and History of the Middle East. She is a Middle East correspondent for the Dutch newspaper Het Algemeen Dagblad – covering Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran. Also a reporter and producer for RTL4 NEWS, and a documentary filmmaker who has made The Birthday, which has screened at more than 50 international festivals and has won several awards, directed and produced in Iran with Negin Kianfar.
Cyanosis
Director: Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami ~ 30 minutes ~ Iran
Print Source: Shane Griffin, Seventh Art Releasing, 1614 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles CA, 90046, seventhart@7thart.com
Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami was born in Tehran,1976, has a BA in cinema and a MA in animation. She has been editing and making some documentary films since 2000. "Eshgh bazi" is a 20 minutes documentary film about competitions of pigeon fanciers in Tehran, made in 2001. After two years of working on her MA thesis,"Documentary Animation", her first book with the same title is going to be published in Persian. As a practical result of her researches, she has made "Cyanosis", a documentary included with 10 minutes of animation. Now she is working on her new project, an animated documentary about her own childhood memories of Iran's war.
Tab-e-Ab
Director: Mani Mirsadeghi ~ 9 minutes ~ Iran
Mani Mirsadeghi is an Iranian filmmaker interested in environmental issues. Protection of wildlife, especially endangered species, is his goal. For this, he has founded "Blue Awareness," an environmental awareness and research organization in Iran. Through his
documentaries, he is trying to share his ideas with other people all over the world.
- Wetlands' Weight [Tab-e-Ab] (A documentary about unique wetlands in Iran]
- Trail of Camelids (A documentary film on camels in Dubai
- To Be on the Edge or Not To Be (A documentary film about conserving the Asiatic Cheetah in Iran)
Salam Iran, A Persian Letter
Director: Jean-Daniel Lafond ~ 72 minutes ~ Canada
“I first traveled to Iran with Amir, without ever leaving Montreal. Until the day when a new wind of hope sprang up across Tehran. After 18 years in exile, Amir had decided to return home. And I, to make a film. What seemed at first like a simple story quickly turned complex. In a country where the dead and martyred are more alive than the living, where the past is more present than the present, and where the invisible overwhelms the visible, everything could happen. Women fighting for their rights, a younger generation seething with frustration, democrats locked in political combat... all embody a thirst for freedom and a hunger for life which the conservative Mollahs in power can no longer contain. Today, in Iran, the revolution has deepened the cleft between an obscurantist Islam terrified by fear of the wave and an Islam open to the world, prepared to plunge into the wave of modernity that sets words and bodies free...”
Born in France, is a former philosophy professor, a documentary filmmaker and a writer. He has written and directed over a dozen
films that embody his commitment to creative documentary filmmaking: Dream Tracks, Tropic North, Freedom Outraged, Haiti in All Our Dreams, Last Call for Cuba, The Barbarian Files, Salam Iran, A Persian Letter, American Fugitive: The Truth about Hassan.
Kites Know No Chastity
Director: Hooshmand Varaei ~ 30 minutes ~ Iran
Cast: Mehdi Zebarjadi, Saeed Fallah, Parastoo Ghaed Rahmat, Nasim Teimurpour
This film deals with the challenging issue of "Betrayal and Punishment" among the married couples in developing countries.
"Kites Know No Chastity" is Hooshmand Varaei's first professional film. He is the graduate of Sooreh Institute of Higher Education in Tehran.
Tehran Has No More Pomegranates
Director: Massoud Bakhshi ~ 67 minutes ~ Iran
Tehran is a large village near the city of Rey, full of gardens and fruit trees. Its inhabitants live in anthill-like underground holes. The village’s several districts are constantly at war. Tehranis’ main occupations are theft and crime, though the king pretends they are subject to him. They grow excellent fruits, notably an excellent pomegranate, which is found only in Tehran.
Born in Tehran, Iran, Massoud Bakhshi earned his high school diploma in photography and cinema (1990) and his BS in Agriculture Engineering (1995). He later studied filmmaking in Italy (1999) and Cultural Financemen Formation in France (2005). He has worked as a film critic, screenwriter and producer.
Filmography: Bagh Dad Bar Ber, Tehran Has No More Pomegranates, Lost Windows, Praying for the Rain, When Behrang Meets Ayoumi, Identification of a Woman.
It Rises From the East
Director: Sudeep Kanwal ~ 18 minutes ~ US/Iran
Cast: Matthew Hamm, Bahman Soltani, Michael Croce
Three individuals struggle to survive in this stand off drama involving faith and enlightenment. When Andrew hired Reza for the overnight position at the gas station he manages, he had no idea that training him would be the longest night of his life. A Robber intrudes. Will faith prevent these two men from squeezing their triggers? With the sun on its way up will there be a shot fired before IT RISES FROM THE EAST.
When Sudeep was getting a degree in Media Studies, he was quite certain that he wanted to go in to advertising. He started directing and producing advertisements and infomercials for local and foreign language channels. Sudeep's first encounter with a 16mm Bolex changed everything. He startec taking Advance cinematography and screenwriting courses at City College, while getting his Bachelors from Queens College. The round trips between the two colleges made it clear that Sudeep wanted to pursue only film.
Final Fitting
Director: Reza Haeri ~ 30 minutes ~ Iran
A documentary about Mr. Arabpour, the master tailor and craftsman, and the proprietor of the most famous tailor shop in Qom. He is in his eighties and for the last several decades has been the official tailor to the most important religious leaders of the country,
Reza Haeri is an Iranian filmmaker and author. Imamzadeh Internet was produced by Article Z (Paris, France) for ARTE, TV3, and other channels. In 1998 he directed the documentary Do you know Mr. Kiarostami? about ordinary people in Tehran and the famous director. Since then he has made documentaries about taxi drivers in Tehran and the rock band 127, and created two video installations, one of which was chosen for the Tehran Biennale. His latest film is a documentary about a tailor who sews clothes for mullahs, including the ex-president Mohammad Khatami.
The T-Shirt
Director: Hossein Martin Fazeli ~ 11 minutes ~ Canada
Cast: Marian Mitas, Andrej Kovac
Mark is half-American, half-Slovak. And he has strong beliefs. In a trip to Slovakia he meets Tomas who is wearing a T-shirt that offends his beliefs.
Hossein Martin Fazeli
An Iranian-Canadian film director. He makes short films, documentaries and PSAs (Public Service Announcements). An experienced filmmaker with a background in art of filmmaking. He has ten years of experience in various aspects of filmmaking in Europe and North America.
Rebirth
Director: Talieh Rohani [In Person] ~ 12 minutes ~ US/Iran
Rebirth is based on a poem by Frough Farokhzad, a Persian poet and activist. Rebirth explores the identity of women through a visual poetry. It follows the imaginations of a woman from childhood to adulthood while walking her through solitude and depression.
Talieh Rohani studied filmmaking in Soureh University in Tehran before going onto do a BFA in Image Arts/Film Studies at Ryerson University in Toronto and topursue an MFA in Cinema Studies at San Francisco State University. She has directed several short films and worked, variously, as a director, art director and production designer, cinematographer and editor. She is interested in the
emergence transnational culture in lives of young Iranian-Americans and in the larger impact of technology on the development of a new global imagination.
Siza (Punishment)
Director: Chiman Rahimi ~ 12 minutes ~ UK/Iran
Cast: Rzgar Sais, Pegah Rahimi, Omar Xayat, Kris Fortello
‘Siza’ is based on a true story of a young girl living in fear for her life, within London’ Kurdish community. By dating a white London boy, Siza throws ‘dishonour’ on her family. Pressure mounts on her father to take drastic reprisals.
Chiman Rahimi was born in Kurdistan of Iran. She had to leave Iran when she was only 18 years old and has lived in London ever since. Chiman went to study film and video at London College of printing now known as London College of Communication. She acquired her B.A (Hons) in Film and video in 1999. She has made few short films since. Her latest project is a short drama called ‘SIZA’. She is now working as a VO correspondent in London. She has also worked as a Free lance reporter for Kurdish satellite Televisions and newspapers. Chiman has always been active in the area of human right and women rights issues.
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