Discoveries from Iran World Cinema

selected by critics international Cannes film festival 1999

Saving Mes Aynak follows Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori as he races against time to save a 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Afghanistan from imminent demolition. A Chinese state-owned mining company is closing in on the ancient site, eager to harvest $100 billion dollars worth of copper buried directly beneath the archaeological ruins. Only 10% of Mes Aynak has been excavated, though, and some believe future discoveries at the site have the potential to redefine the history of Afghanistan and the history of Buddhism itself. Qadir Temori and his fellow Afghan archaeologists face what seems an impossible battle against the Chinese, the Taliban and local politics to save their cultural heritage from likely erasure.

This film is narration of perplexity of people who are skeptical of their actions And they can not make a decision. Although they know of each other, they pretend they do not know. In this film people are lost between tradition and modernity

Salim Shaheen film from Afghanistan

After his owner dies, a dog wander alone in Tehran, following people and their stories.

Everything is ready on the set, but the filming is not going well. The actress is nervous; she thinks everyone expects her to be someone else. The man is haunted by the absence of his wife; he doesn't know how to handle this situation.

The choice of the name of the film is directed by Touraj Mansouri. This film is a product of Iran and produced in 2004

For his directorial and writing debut, cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari turns to his most familiar subject: filmmaking. A small crew from Tehran is filming in the countryside. Just when they are ready to shoot the final scene, the weather refuses to cooperate. As if that’s not enough of a problem, the lead actor suddenly abandons the shoot to attend to a family emergency. How far will the filmmakers go to accomplish their mission? Having worked on dozens of productions as a cinematographer, Kalari reflects on the absurd and comical situations that befall filmmakers in this charming picture (on which he also served as cinematographer).

On the eve of his first show, rock musician Siavash (Ali Ghorbanzadeh) makes a pilgrimage to the grave of his late father, killed during the Iran-Iraq War. But soon thereafter, a friend reveals that Siavash's father is still alive, a POW being held in Tehran. With the help of his girlfriend (Hedyeh Tehrani), Siavash struggles to make sense of the news. Saman Moghadam wrote and directed this portrait of young Iranians in the aftermath of war.

One night a man's dream doesn't proceed as he ordered.The company that produces dreams tells him the fault has been occurred because of the similarity between his dream and a young girl's dream. They should spend a day in the company in order to solve the problem.

Shahram, who is an experienced mugger, along with his assistant who is a rookie criminal, infiltrated a wedding by posing as guests to execute their plan. Their plan is to steal the weddings gifts and golds which are in the bridal car. In the middle of the way, Shahram falls in love with the bride and gets stuck in a dilemma. In the end, he decides to mug another car instead of the bridal car.

Mina secretly goes to a gynecologist's office with her friend Maedeh, who is about to get married, to help her illegally remove the obstacle to her marriage.

Three ambitious and unemployed young men, accompanied by an elderly woman who desires one of them, go to the sea.

Hamid and his wife Maryam are getting ready to throw a birthday party for their daughter Parvin.

Two musicians, when they can't find work for themselves, dress up in women's clothes and enter the house of a wealthy woman whose servants are all female; because the lady of the house intensely dislikes men.

Sohrab and Maryam have a happy life until....

An elderly man whose daughter has many suitors sets the condition for marriage to her as finding his other daughter. He, who is in shock, recovers from his illness.

Babak is a twenty seven years old man who lost his fiance in a plane crash. He, who could not cope with the sadness of his fiance's separation, has locked himself in his lonely cave and...

A boy has to bring his father to school because of a fight with a classmate, but his mother prevents him from coming because his father is transgender.

A worker from the lower class of society who, despite the hardships of everyday life, has a big dream: to break the world record for two ultramarathons. He is trying to overcome social and personal limitations and completely change the course of his life by setting a world record.

A girl home alone entertains herself by watching a surveillance camera every day. When one day she notices an alien boy on the camera, the girl tries to communicate with him.

Centering upon a community of women who have divided themselves from men, 'City Of Women' explores themes of female strength and individual freedom. In an attempt to end the feud between the Keshtgar and Shavan families, Khan Jan decrees that unless the children of the two families marry, the Keshtgars will be forbidden from using the family garden at Ab Ask and the Shavans will retain control of the properties. When the daughter of the Keshtgars, Mahtab, gets accepted into university, she takes it upon herself to fight this ridiculous law and unite the families by other means. Compelling drama from Ataollah Hayati about the complications brought about by the separation of the sexes.

A theater directed by Alireza Koushk Jalali

A man is trapped in a flat and tries to get out.

Sohrab is a young man who is heavily addicted, and this problem has caused him to be poor and abandoned by his wife and children.

Unsaid stories of a transgender couple in a meeting after two years of separation.

Directed by Yousef Bapiri.

A short film.

A female dog escaped from her owner to save her puppies, but her owner decided to kill her puppies...

A film about Mansour Nariman (the most important Iranian Oud player).

Medea is alone, she has killed her sons, and she is thinking about her relationship with the errant Jason.

Sebastian, a Dutch man, runs a hotel in Yazd. ‌ He is interested in Iran and has made this his second home.

Two high school girls decide to erase some compromising footage from the school's CCTV cameras, and end up getting locked in at school.

Esmael Barari's second short film whch has won The Golden Butterfly from 1990 Isfahan International Festival of Films for Children & Young Adults

"Aebadane Kohanz" is the narrative of the upbringing, prosperity and growth of the teenagers of Amir Al-Momineen Mosque Kohens Shahryar, who were actively present in the important events of the Islamic Revolution.

A woman is painting another woman in a house and over time a relationship is formed between the two.

An actor and actress are brought together during a casting for a mainstream film. They don’t get the roles, so they decide to make their own film instead. This will be a movie which defies the censorship rules, a film in which anything goes, and its makers won’t be held back by anything or anyone. The pair become a threesome when they get hold of a cameraman and director named Ziya, and the enchanting adventure can now begin. A burglary (the movie has to be financed somehow) marks the start of not only the shoot, but also a joyride, a game and a celebration of friendship and film.

A woman gets suspicious of her husband spending time in their basement, where she finds her husband has hidden a painting.

Dawood is the older brother of the family, who, at the insistence of Daniyal, goes north with his wife Samira and his daughter Aram to reconcile with his sister Delaram after fifteen years. After reaching the north, Delaram does not accept them and David decides to return, but Daniel prevents him and shares an important issue with him and...

Between Shadow and Light is a documentary about the thought, style and works of "Farah Osuli", a contemporary Iranian painter. He seeks to find a meaningful form to express his thoughts and ideas in his works and has found this form in the rich tradition and subtle beauty of Iranian paintings, architecture and decorative arts.

14-year-old Ahmad is the breadwinner for his fatherless family. At his mother’s request, they rent a farm, but human bones are found, disturbing their plan. A challenging debut feature.

From Different Angles

The arrival of a German tracking dog at the customs pier, which is by no means negotiable, has disrupted the order of the city. Major tells the story of a man in Bushehr who feels responsible for his son for the first time in several years.

The Story of a Complicated Relationship between The Teenage Boy and The Woman In a City.

5th Movie By Rasool Mollagholi Poor in Iran and first Performance as an actor by Masoud Karamati.

A man named Majid disappoints three people for four nights.

In a mysterious unknown planet, a rabbit-like creature is eaten; but that's not the end of the story.

In rural northwest Iran, Gheirat, a modest charcoal producer, is pushed into a tragic spiral after his son, sentenced to jail, evades to Azerbaijan.

A 30 years old man, from a faraway village in the north of Iran, bankrupted. At the same time, he found that he’s got progressive lung cancer. He made new decisions for continuing his life.

The bus takes orphanages for a short camp to the northern regions of the country...

In a sanitarium for injures of war some ghosts are waiting and wandering about but for different reasons.

Kiarash and Maral take turn robbing some stolen money off each other until they face the inevitable consequence.

Salim Shaheen film from Afghanistan about drugs and addiction.

A loop of two parts of a film, superimposed on top of one another, that concern a man who has arrived at the house of his lover and her husband to hang a painting on their wall.

Abbas, a truck driver, and his apprentice Dada encounter a homeless woman named Marjan on the road...

Two brothers, Hooshang and Manouchehr, go to propose to two sisters, Katayoun and Soudabeh.

Mohammad, a boy who sells newspapers and has a great passion for football, goes to watch football matches with a young man named Moslem, a street vendor, despite his father's strong objections. One day, Mohammad accidentally finds out that Hossein, the leader of the fans of his favorite soccer team, is in need of money to pay his overdue rent. Mohammad tries to help him in place of Moslem, who is a close friend of Hossein, but he doesn't have enough money. Then he encounters Javad Zarincheh, who gives him the money needed for Hossein. When Mohammad's father learns about his son's selflessness, he tries to rescue Moslem, who has recently been imprisoned.

A bankrupt businessman and his wife attempt a rail suicide, but the wife's change of heart make it fail. They have already abandoned their newborn daughter who is picked up by a street sweeper and raised in his family. Years later, she runs away from the home searching for a better life and a job...