UCLA Film & Television Archive and the Bijan and Soraya Amin Foundation present

17TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF IRANIAN CINEMA
Saturday, April 7 – Friday, May 11

 

2007 marks the Archive's 17th Annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema, now in its new home at the Billy Wilder Theater in the heart of Westwood's "Tehrangeles."  This year's offerings feature a greater number of films than ever before, including 13 films from Iran and the diaspora.  Featured in the series this year are works by established filmmakers whose films we have showcased in the past (Bahman Farmanara, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad) and works by emerging directors.  Also included are five new documentaries that illuminate Iranian life, art and popular culture.  Some of this year's themes include male bonding and friendship, emigration, censorship, music and, in our opening night film, mouth-watering Persian food (When Fish Fall In Love).  In addition, we are delighted to welcome several guests who will be present to discuss their work in person. This year's generous selection of recent narrative and documentary films and videos attests to the enduring quality and diversity of Iranian filmmaking.

*All films are in Persian with English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.

*IN PERSON:  Maryam Kashani, Mamak Khadem
 
*All Iranian programs screen at our new home, the Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood Village!

 

Saturday, April 7
7 p.m. / 9:30 p.m.
WHEN FISH FALL IN LOVE
(MAHIHA ASHEGH MISHAVAND)         
2005

 

dir: Ali Rafiee. scr: A. Rafiee. cast: Reza Kianian, Roya Nonahali, Golshifteh Farahani.
Political prisoner Aziz (Kianian) returns to his seaside home after two decades behind bars only to find his former flame, Atieh (Nonahali), running a restaurant on the estate. To protect the family business, Atieh's daughter, Touka (Farahani), conspires to woo Aziz's heart with the promise of rekindled romance, and his stomach with mouth-watering dishes.
35mm, 96 min.

NOTE:  Film will screen twice this evening.  Separate admission required for each screening.
 

Saturday, April 14
7:30 p.m.
MEN AT WORK
(KARGARAN MASHGHOULE KARAND)
2006

 

dir/scr: Mani Haghighi. cast: Attila Pesyani, Mahmoud Kalari, Ahmad Hamed.
Based on a story by Abbas Kiarostami, director Mani Haghighi's film, which equally invites and defies allegory, pits four middle-aged men against a seemingly immobile rock.  While the boulder remains stubbornly upright, the characters' quest to topple it drives them further and further into comic madness, and what begins as macho tomfoolery transforms into emasculating obsession.
HD, 77 min.
 
Preceded by:
MEN UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER BETTER
(MARDHA HAMDIGAR RA BEHTAR MIFAHMAND)
2006
dir/scr: Marjan Alizadeh. cast: Alireza Amirhajebi, Maryam Yavari.
When his wife doesn't return home one evening, an upset husband phones his friend for solace and advice.
HDcam, 8 min.

 
Wednesday, April 25
7:30 pm
BEST IN THE WEST                
US, 2006

 

dir/scr: Maryam Kashani. with: Mansour Kashani, Nasser Kashani, Farhad Ahmadi, Sohrab Ahmadi, Abbas Barzgar, Rahman Farsi, Saeed Ghazi, Mohammad Talai.
Director Kashani's first-person documentary focuses on her father and his close-knit group of male friends who maintained their tight bonds after emigrating from Iran to the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960s and '70s.  Their personal stories are interwoven with a political and industrial history of Iran in the last century and the struggle to control the country's most coveted natural resource: oil.
Digibeta, 71 min.

NOSE, IRANIAN STYLE
(DAMAGH BE SABKE IRANI)     
2005

 

dir: Mehrdad Oskouei. scr: M. Oskouei, Mandan Karimi, Alireza Bahrami.
With a humorous touch, documentary filmmaker Oskouei shines a light on Iran's booming nose job market, where a startling 60,000 to 70,000 men and women go under the knife each year.
Beta-SP, 52 min.

*IN PERSON: Maryam Kashani
 

Friday, April 27
7:30 pm
SOUNDS OF SILENCE
(SOT-E SOKUT)
Iran/UK/Germany, 2006
dir: Amir Hamz, Mark Lazarz. With Shadi Vatanparast, Shahram Sharbar, Babak Akhoondy.
Hamz and Lazarz's documentary illustrates a slice of Tehran's diverse underground music scene and the performers who must contend with the government's cultural gatekeepers, the Ershad, who hold the authority to ban performances and CDs.  Some musicians have taken foreign sounds and made them uniquely Iranian–including a rock band inspired by a 14th century Persian poet, and a rapper who quotes from the Koran.
Video, 97 min.
 
Preceded by:
BACK VOCAL
(SEDAY E-DOVOM)
2005

 

dir: Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. With Kiana Kiaras, Darya Dadvar, Mamak Khadem, Pari Maleki.
Nearly three decades after Iran's Islamic revolution, female singers are still forbidden to perform solo. Mirtahmasb's short documentary follows several women struggling to make their voices heard within the limits of the law.
Video, 40 min.

*IN PERSON:  Mamak Khadem
 

Sunday, April 29
7 p.m.
MAINLINE
(KHOON BAZI)      
2006

 

dir: Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Mohsen Abdolvahab. scr: R. Bani-Etemad, Farid Mostafavi, M. Abdolvahab, Naghmeh Samini. cast: Bita Farahi, Baran Kosari, Masoud Rayegan.
Bride-to-be Sara (Kosari, Bani-Etemad's real-life daughter) relapses into heroin abuse while her fiancé is studying in Canada. Sara's mother (Farahi), desperate to clean up her daughter before the wedding, loads her into a car and heads for a rehabilitation center near the Caspian Sea.
35mm, 78 min.
 
 
Friday, May 4
7:30 pm
A LITTLE KISS
(YEK BOUS-E KOUCHOULOU)    
2005
dir/scr: Bahman Farmanara. cast: Reza Kianian, Jamshid Mashayekhi.
Farmanara's richly symbolic drama follows writers and friends, Sa'adi (Kianian) who has recently returned to Iran after 30 years spent in Europe, and Shebli, who stayed behind, eventually enjoying success as his homeland's most acclaimed novelist.
35mm, 100 min.
 
Preceded by:
A LITTLE BIT HIGHER
(KAMI BALATAR)   
2005
dir: Mehdi Jafari. scr: Mahin Abbas-Zadeh, M. Jafari. cast: Ahmad Reza Asadi, Javad Emami.
A deceptively prosaic encounter between two crane operators—one an elderly former teacher, the other a romantically troubled younger man.
35mm, 12 min.
 
 
Saturday, May 5
7:30 pm
IRAN: A CINEMATOGRAPHIC REVOLUTION
(IRAN: UNE RÉVOLUTION CINÉMATOGRAPHIQUE)
France, 2006
dir: Nader Takmil Homayoun. scr: Nicolas Bertrand, N. T. Homayoun. with: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Amir Naderi, Dariush Mehrjui, Feredoun Goleh, Bahman Ghobadi, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Farokh Ghafari.
This engaging and informative overview of Iranian cinema includes fascinating interviews with renowned Iranian film directors.  Interspersed with archival footage from the Shah's reign through the tumultuous time before and during the revolution, and with an incredible array of rare film clips, Homayoun's film is an eye-opening portrait of Iran through its cinema of the past 70 years.
Video, 98 min.

 
Friday, May 11
7:30 pm
TO BE A STAR
(SETAREH MI-SHVAD)              
2006

 

dir/scr: Fereydoun Jeyrani. cast: Ezatollah Entezami, Andisheh Fouadvand
When an aspiring actress wrangles a small role for her out-of-work father (Entezami, in a tour-de-force performance), the man finds only abuse and ultimately heartbreak on-set. Condemned by Iran's censors, who banned the film and destroyed the negative, this print is the only surviving uncut version of the film.
35mm, 98 min.