Country of Origin: Iran
CertificationE
Our Rating
CertificationPG
Our Rating
CertificationU
Our Rating
Based on fact and veering comfortably into fiction, we begin with an incident in the director's youth, when as a member of a militant anti Sha group he stabs a policeman, is shot and then taken to a torture chamber, where he remains until the 1979 Iranian revolution. Many years later, while auditioning for the director's first film the two protagonists innocently meet, each having the opportunity to give their own account of the event. A Moment Of Innocence is a gentle, intriguing film, with muc
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Certification12
Our Rating
The stand out film of the 2011 Berlin Film Festival and winner of the Golden Bear, A Separation is a suspenseful and intelligent drama detailing the fractures and tensions at the heart of Iranian society, but using the disintegration of a marriage as the pivot by which all turns. When his wife leaves him Nadar hires a maid to help him with his ailing father, but the young woman has many secrets and soon he fin find out more...
Certification12
Our Rating
This is an unsentimental, brutal and a breathtakingly beautiful film. The fact that it is described as a docu-drama is a credit to the performances of the children and the directoral vision of Bahman Ghobadi. A group of orphaned Kurdish children live on the poverty line in a village on the Iran-Iraq border. Doing anything they can to make money, the children work in markets, carry tyres, and work for smugglers though are often cheated by their employers. Working in extreme conditions, they feed
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Certification12
Our Rating
A tight-knit group of friends holidaying on the Caspian Sea find their lives, their lies and their deceptions unravelling before them. Intelligent, shrewd and meticulously crafted, ‘About Elly’ confirms Asghar Farhadi's (A Separation) status as one of the finest purveyors of human drama in cinema today.
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CertificationPG
Our Rating
Following the fall of the Taliban, Nogreh, a young woman, decides to resume her education so as to be to fulfil her ambitions to enter politics. Her fundamentalist father, however, feels that his world has collapsed. With refugees flooding to the city Nogreh and her father are forced to move from place to place for shelter as their living conditions become overcrowded.
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CertificationU
Our Rating
Gentle, simple tale of a lonely little girl (an impressive performance from Jairan Abadzade) whose shopping trip turns into an epic adventure. With her parents and siblings too busy to entertain her, four year old Jairan begs her elderly neighbour to take her on her weekly trek across town to buy a bag of rice. But the busy Tehran market streets provide plenty of distractions, and when the pair arrive to find the shop closed, their problems are only just starting........... Winner of the Golden
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CertificationPG
Our Rating
In the harsh environment of the Iran/Iraq border two nomadic teachers attempt to ply their trade. Reeboir hooks up with a group of teenage smugglers while Said joins a group of old men as they make the trek back to their decimated homes in Iraq. Winner of the jury prize at Cannes 2000, this is the second feature from the director of 'The Apple' and proof, if proof were needed, that her first film was no fluke; "Blackboards" is strikingly visual and masterfully observed.
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CertificationPG
Our Rating
Using as its back drop the ancient Buddhist statue of Bamiyan, that was blown to pieces by the Taliban in 2001, we follow Baktay, a six-year-old girl who makes the momentous decision to go to school. Using her mum's lipstick for a pencil the wee lass sets off on her mission, but so ingrained is the violence and suffering that she and her peers have experienced that young Baktay's simple goal becomes an increasingly perilous odyssey. ‘Buddha Collapsed out of Shame' is a powerful, deeply poignant,
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Certification15
Our Rating
Set in contemporary Iran in the unseen world of Iranian youth culture, filled with underground parties, sex, drugs and defiance, Circumstance is the story of two vivacious young girls, Atafeh and Shireen, discovering their burgeoning sexuality, struggling with their desires and the boundaries placed upon them by the world they were born into. Winner of the Sundance Audi find out more...
CertificationU
Our Rating
The true story of Hossain Sabzian (playing himself), arrested and prosecuted for impersonating Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf (playing himself). A combination of dramatic re-enactment and real footage of all those involved, including the ensuing trial, 'Close Up' is the story of a man whose only crime is a passion for film, his guilt borne not of malice but beguiling naivety. Witty, touching, thoughtful and creative, this is a film that celebrates not just the individual but people's ability
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Certification15
Our Rating
Pizza delivery agent Hussein struggles to find his place in a complex and contradictory modern Islamic Iran. Masterfully directed by Jafar Panahi, 'Crimson Gold' shows a very different side to Iran and its undeniable poignancy rightly earned it the Prix Un Certain Regard at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Beginning in extraordinary fashion with a hold up on a Tehran jewellery store that ends in tragedy, the film then backtracks to detail the events that drove an essentially ordinary, decent man t
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Certification12
Our Rating
On the last Wednesday before the spring solstice ushers in the Persian New Year, people set off fireworks following an ancient Zoroastrian tradition. Rouhi, spending her first day at a new job, finds herself in the midst of a different kind of fireworks -- a domestic dispute between her new boss and his wife.
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CertificationU
Our Rating
A stunning and deeply moving portrayal of nomadic life in Iran. Gabbeh is a young woman who weaves the dreams and horrors of her life into the patterns of her rugs. A moving story about love and survival in a traditional society. The vibrant scenery and delicate story make this a must see.
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Certification15
Our Rating
Mamo is an elderly Iraqi Kurdish musican, long exiled in Iran, who is determined to take his 10 sons and a female singer, illegal in Iran, to perform one last concert in his homeland. Having overcome the bureaucratic hassles, and despite visions of his own forthcoming death, he sets off, with entourage, in a beat-up old bus on a troubled journey toward the snow covered border mountains in search of his destination.
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Certification12
Our Rating
A man, fired from his job, migrates abroad, leaving behind his wife and daughter, who hear no word from him for months. A feckless stranger arrives in town in search of work and is immediately drawn to the beautiful young woman whom he hears no longer has a husband. This is a world dominated by the need to survive, where migration is seen as an escape, however illusory, and families are separated by poverty. Adapted from the story ‘Safar' by Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, this fourth feature from acclaime
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CertificationPG
Our Rating
A documentary by 14-year-old Hana Makhmalbaf, recorded with a small digital camera, showing the backstage of production in the quest of her older sister Samirato to make the film ‘At Five In The Afternoon'. What we witness is not just a remarkable portrait of post-Taliban Afghanistan and the still palpable fear of its people, in particular the women, but also a striking and not always flattering insight into the determined and sometimes ruthless methods Samira adopts in order to make her film a
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CertificationPG
Our Rating
Nafas is an Afghan journalist living in Canada when she gets a message from her sister, still living in the place of their birth, pronouncing that come the next solar eclipse she will commit suicide. Nafas decides to make the perilous journey to her home land and find her sister, returning to the veil she had long left behind on her return to a country ravaged by civil war and still under the iron grip of the Taliban. Kandahar is a stunning piece of film making with some breathtaking images. Sho
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