It’s a curious fact that, when in the year 1900, on the occasion of a trip to Europe, the Shah of Iran Mozaffar al-Din Qajar attended a screening of a cinematograph in Contrexéville (France), he was so impressed that he ordered his photographer to buy a Gaumont camera. Since then he promoted cinema in Iran, ordering movies, opening up cinema theatres and dubbing into Farsi many French films for enjoyment of the Persian public. This is the beginning of Iranian cinema.
This fact explains why there are so many good Iranian productions and their presence in elitist film festivals, where they are so often awarded.
Many European directors like Theo Angelopoulos, Manoel de Oliveira, Ermanno Olmi, Tony Gatlif or Raphaël Nadjari have declared themselves ardent admirers of the Iranian cinema, and films such as ‘Kandahar’ (2001, Moshsen Makhmalbaf), ‘Turtles can fly’ (2004, Bahman Ghobadi), ‘Buddha collapsed out of shame’ (2007, Hana Makhmalbaf), or ‘No one knows about Persian cats’ (2009, Bahman Ghobadi) have been recognized both by filmmakers and the audiences. Victor Erice’s admiration of Abbas Kiarostami’s work -the most visible example of the so-called New Iranian Cinema- was reflected in the exhibition ‘Correspondences’, which reproduced an exchange of audiovisual letters between these two cult directors.
This programme of Cinema on Tuesdays will feature four films which can be considered as jewels of the Iranian cinema: ‘So Close, So Far’ (Kheili dour, kheili nazdik, 2005) and ‘A cube of sugar’ (Ye habe ghand, 2011) by Seyyed Reza Mir-Karimi, ‘Gold and copper’ (Tala va mes, 2011) by Homayoun Assadian, and ‘The painting pool’ (Howze naghashi, 2013) by young director Maziar Miri.
As we will see during this cycle, the Iranian cinema keeps many precious jewels that remain hidden and at the Three Cultures Foundation we are happy to show them.
– Tuesday, November 3rd
So Close, So Far
Seyyed Reza Mir-Karimi, Iran 2005, 121 min.
– Tuesday, November 10th
A Cube of Sugar
Seyyed Reza Mir-Karimi, Iran, 2011, 116 min.
– Tuesday, November 17th
Gold and copper
Homayoun Assadian. Iran 2011. 97 min.
– Tuesday, November 24th
The painting pool
Maziar Miri. Iran, 2013, 94 min.
In collaboration with the Embassy of the Republic of Iran.
