Discoveries from Iran World Cinema

“The Pylon” tells the story of a factory worker who decides to kill someone in the middle of the night, but the problem is that she is kind!

An old man is collecting the bodies of the dead in the fighting between the local parties and believes that everyone is the same and fighting for the same purpose.

A bleak, cryptic vision of life in contemporary Iran that eschews overt social commentary in favour of a very personal vision of stifled lives. Directed remotely by Rashidi from Ireland over Skype, the making of this unique film reflects the alienation it so compellingly portrays.

The story starts in a peaceful village, where people are living gratefully together, having fun, greeting and passing lives. Children are playing, running around, laughing loud and enjoying their time. The sudden death of a pigeon is the start of a destruction to all these beauties. Time goes on and people get more and more cruel. An intimate warm space turns into a low quality, black and white world which reminds every spectator of a cheese game.

The first film from Shahriar Hanife's series of experimental etudes, an Iranian researcher.

A boy is caught up in a sensory labyrinth and tries to overcome his fears and prepare to face the reality of his own story; which he regrets at the last moment.

"Zajr" depicts the loss of identity and place.

The human-like people which does not accept diversities and seeks its annihilation.

About how the sudden and unexpected death of someone may become a start point of the new shared story of two young peoples.

This drama movie goes through the life of Babak and Monireh. The difficult social situation causes Babak to work a lot and him not being present at home.

When the truck is stolen from his father and with him his livelihood as a mobile apple seller, his son Saeed cannot meet the demand of supplying a basket of apples to school. A razor-sharp look at the age-old city versus countryside discrepancy the film follows Saeed through the alleys and streets of a Tehran suburb in search of a solution.

Inspired by two stories by Gregory Burnham and Edward Lowe, this poetic and experimental essay film is a new look at the ill-fated relationship and human book with life and numbers.

The short movie "Hassani"

In quiet, poetic images of snow-covered, rural Iran, the film tells of a little boy who has to watch helplessly while his sick brother struggles to remain alive. When his parents take him away to relatives, Ehsan sets off for home again through the snowy night, to defend his brother against the angel of death.

A young girl called Ava has to work in her father's auto shop as a mechanic because of her father's illness. Ava is looking forward to her brother returning from military service in a border area so as to get marry Abbas...

Ahmed, a 25 year old Syrian from the besieged city of Fuah in Idlib province, decides to join the air rescue team to send food to the people of her hometown.

Some journeys are harder than others.

Mahmoud is a very very short man, just one meter tall, who wishes to play a two meter tall instrument like a Contrabass. He finds he cannot reach until …

At the age of 30, Parastoo prepares for the sex reassignment surgery, which she faces a problem that she must solve and understand.

What you give matters more than what you give.

A pregnant woman is renting a house out of town with her husband to avoid air pollution and the harmful frequencies of urban space, on the first night they move to their new home, an anonymous person calls them and warns them to leave as soon as possible.

A man carries with him a wonderful flower which arouses the curiosity and the mistrust of the medical profession, the army and the police. Only women and children dare to breathe its fragrance.

A movie about a bad luck taxi driver

Ommidvar brothers travel to Saudi Arabia and from there to Africa

Documentary about Dr. Fatemi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mohammad Mossadegh's government

Every year in the middle of winter, the residents of the village of Oraman Takht in Kurdistan hold a ceremony in memory of a mystic man for two weeks. This film is a look at this ritual.

In 1972, three young Iranian musicians came together to perform passionate rock songs for music lovers. Bahram Amin Salmasi (guitar), Ainullah Keyvan Shokooh (drums) and Bahram Saeedi (guitar) along with Eric Arkont (percussion) and Andranik Asatourian (piano) formed the Scorpio group. The band's skill in playing the works of pioneers of rock music received a lot of attention, and it did not take long for it to gain a large following in nightclubs and ballrooms. Forty years later, the memoirs of Scorpio recount the formation of rock music in Iran.

Zinat, who experimentally provided health services to the villagers of Salakh on Qeshm Island, discovered the burqa to get well and wore a health uniform, and was one of the first women on the island to work outside the home. Zinat is the only native of the island who ran for the ten-seat council in the first city and village elections (March 1998). A special day deals with the events and discussions related to Zinat's candidacy on election day as a woman.

Ghasem is forced to sell their cow to spend a hard winter in their village. As soon as the sale is made, the cow goes missing.

A soldier is struggling to obey his duty or listen to his heart during a military operation.

Unlimited internet makes some changes in life of a young couple.

Night, Wind, Moon

A political documentary in which the filmmaker speaks with American hostages and Iranian hostage- takers after 29 years from the event.

Ava's story that enters a park

Gul Afrooz is engaged to her lover Firooz, despite this she is forced to marry an old warlord, a Khan.The Khan sends her to Iran as a drug courier for an opium ring. The ring is busted and she has to avoid the police and the revenge of the Khan (nomsheep)

Experimental short documentary

The story of a young couple who want to marry together, but they are relatives and there is some risk according to premarital genetic tests. Additionally, their families do not approve this relationship.

At the center of this documentary are Hamid Naficy, a historian of Middle Eastern and Iranian cinema and his family, who remained in Iran. Behind them, however, we see the shadows of thousands of other families whose offspring - artists, researchers, scientists - live far away from their homeland. In following Naficy's personal and professional life, this documentary reels in his generation as well, to explore identity, immigration, exile and the cultural purgatory that is created as immigrants try to preserve their ancestral sense of belonging while seeking to establish a new home.

Taraneh, a university student, faces difficulties to her basic living expenses and therefore decides to enter a non-official modeling company which eventually endangers her life.

Mr. Moez manipulates his son, Jahan, to fight a respected man if he wants to marry his cousin Mahin.

Broersen and Lukács construct a replica of Białowieża primeval forest. Roaming this virtual forest is Iranian opera singer Shahram Yazdani, who performs his version of Nature Boy, echoing Nat King Cole’s hit. In Forest on Location, nature is viewed as a mirror, reflecting our own perception.

Since Iran opened its borders to refugees of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979, it has become home to as many as 2.5 million Afghans, half of whom are undocumented. When renewed US sanctions in 2018 caused a currency collapse in Iran, the vulnerable population of migrants—often working as low-paid labourers in harsh conditions—was severely affected by the recession. Now, large numbers of them want to return home. Bahman Kiarostami (the son of late acclaimed director Abbas Kiarostami) sets up his camera in a Tehran-based facility processing thousands of illegals leaving the country. The migrants are asked surprising personal questions about everything from religion to drugs to family issues. With a Wiseman-esque fly-on-the-wall observation of these surprising interrogation sessions, Kiarostami paints a kaleidoscopic, empathetic and often humorous picture of the Afghans' place in Iranian society and their reasons for leaving it.

Aida, 35-year-old Iranian girl, lives in Paris and back to Tehran after a few years to receive sperm from an Iranian boy based on their previous agreement and being pregnant. At the first ...

The movie focuses on the first steps of schizophrenia in the life of the character and his attempt to realize it and accept it through himself for half a year. How and why does this happen to "us"? From the ignorant state to the splitting of cognitions and emotions.

Reza Tehrani is a young guy who do illegals. He little by little is dragged toward illegal drugs by a dentist. He meets Arezoo the sister of one of his clients and falls in love with her. They decide to run away together and get marry secretly but her family are after them.

In a bazaar, a poor young boy sees precious stones behind the shop window. The merchant invites him to enter, then takes him to the mountain, where he will have to face multiple dangers...

After a dam flooded a village in northern Iran, one island remained. There’s a grave on it. On a hill above the new lake, an old woman looks out at it. An intimate look at the daily routine of an Iranian woman who has survived modestly for twelve years alone in a house at the base of the mountain. She waits for permission to visit the island.

Amazing. You’ve never seen so much plasticine doing so much crazy stuff.

An exquisitely hand-painted journey following the dreams of a young girl whose dreams fill with animals as a way to explain her world.

Shiites elegiac poetry.

In a traditional Iranian dating agency, the manager, Mrs. Sadri, and her female employees are dead set on finding their clients a husband.

A documentary short.

A documentary short.

A documentary depicting the life of three teenager boys in the Tehran House of Correction. They are portrayed as victims of serious social problems such as addiction, poverty, and divorce.

Its about endangered persian tiger named Maya

Personal depicts a crisis in the life of a young Iranian woman with a secret modeling career.

Amir - a youngster from Zanjan (one of the provinces of Iran) is going to Tehran to visit her grandmother for the first time by train, but inside the train coup, a man steals his money while he is asleep ...

Re-edited version of Farokh Ghafari's Jonube shahr without director attribution.