The 2015 Iranian Film Season is curated by Dr Nacim Pak-Shiraz and sponsored by The Sutton Gallery, Arts & Business Scotland, Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies of University of Edinburgh and the Filmhouse Cinema. The film season will include 8 feature films, one each night, starting from Sunday 8th Feb 2015, including a number of UK/Scottish Premiers. The Filmhouse Cinema is the venue for all screenings. Please contact the cinema directly to book your tickets.
Venue: Filmhouse Cinema, 88 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH3 9BZ
T: +(44) 131 228 2688, W:www.filmhousecinema.com
The Desert Fish
(Incl. Director Q&A and Reception)
Date: Sunday 8th Feb 2015
Time: 18:10
Mohammad Ghorbankarimi • 2013 • Iran/Canada • 84mins • Farsi with English subtitles
Ahmad is a young boy who wants to unravel the mystery of his dead mother who still comes to him in dreams. He undertakes an incredible journey to find out where he came from and the secrets his father never told him.
The screening of this film will be followed by a Q&A with the director Mohammad Ghorbankarimi, arts director / custom and set designer Nassim Azadi, and Editor Maryam Ghorbankarimi. There will be a drinks reception and live music by Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin (EYG) , at the bar of the Traverse Theatre, opposite Filmhouse, to mark the opening of the Film Season.
Taboor
Date: Monday 9th Feb 2015
Time: 20:45
Vahid Vakilifar • 2012 • Iran • 84mins • Farsi with English subtitles
A man seeks to protect his hypersensitive body from a daily rise in temperature caused by pervasive electromagnetic waves. He concocts an aluminium jumpsuit which he wears under abundant layers of clothing. Despite his fragile health, every evening he rides his motorbike to keep appointments with his customers. His mission: to destroy cockroach nests. After each mission the man plunges into the dark heart of the city, crisscrossing the far flung streets of a megapolis in which time has stood still and from which the tumult of the day has disappeared.
Downpour
Date: Tuesday 10th Feb 2015
Time: 17:45
Bahram Beizai • 1972 • Iran • 128mins • Farsi with English subtitles
A well educated and humble teacher arrives in a new city and at a new job in the pre-revolutionary Iran. He falls in love with a hardworking underprivileged young woman that nurses her very old mother and raises her young brother. In an environment where commitments and social problems often stand in the way between people and their dreams.
A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral
Date: Wednesday 11th Feb 2015
Time: 20:45
Saman Salur • 2006 • Iran • 85mins • Farsi with English subtitles
Sadry and Yadi work at a petrol station removed from the main traffic routes since the building of a ring road. It is winter and heavy snow lies on the ground. Sadry, a former performing strongman who accidentally lost an eye, is behaving strangely. He takes off from time to time and seems obsessed with the weather. Yadi is in love with a girl from a nearby town and sends her passionate letters via the local postman. Sadry and Yadi occasionally receive a visit from Orooj, the neighbourhood undertaker, their only contact with the exterior.
“A Few Kilos of Dates for a Funeral” is a story of ordinary people with all their qualities and defects……but it is above all a story of love.
The Prince
Date: Thursday 12th Feb 2015
Time: 18:10
Mahmoud Behraznia• 2014 • Iran/Germany • 92mins • Farsi/German with English subtitles
It’s 1997 and Afghanistan is controlled by the Taliban. Seventeen-year-old Jalil Nazari finds refuge in Iran, where he ekes out an existence doing odd jobs. One day luck comes his way and he lands the starring role in an Iranian feature film. The film, ‘Djomeh’, directed by Hassan Yektapanah is selected for the 2000 Cannes Film Festival where it wins the ‘Golden Camera’ award, thus hurtling Jali towards unexpected horizons…
Kami’s Party
Date: Friday 13th Feb 2015
Time: 18:10
Ali Ahmadzadeh • 2013 • Iran • 80mins • Farsi with English subtitles
Negin is spending a few days on holiday with her boyfriend Omid and her sister Nazanin in a villa on the banks of the Caspian Sea. Not having had news of Omid for several hours Negin decides to go with her friend Farnaz to a party being held by Kami, a common friend. The two young women drive off to Lavassan, a small district on the outskirts of Tehran, where the party is taking place. Negin doesn’t realize, however, that a surprise awaits her in the trunk of the car.
Parviz
Date: Saturday 14th Feb 2015
Time: 18:10
Majid Barzegar • 2012 • Iran • 105mins • Farsi with English subtitles
Despite his 50 years Parviz still lives off his father and the two men don’t get on very well. Things come to a head when the father tells his son he has decided to remarry. Parviz has no other choice but surrender his place to his step-mother and leave home. Parviz finds it difficult to get used to this new solitary life far from his neighborhood and the people he knows. He thus concocts a novel way of fighting back against the injustice done to him.
My Name Is Negahdar Jamali and I Make Westerns
Date: Sunday 15th Feb 2015
Time: 18:00
Kamran Heidari • 2012 • Iran • 65mins • Farsi with English subtitles
“My name is John Ford and I make Westerns” this is how John Ford introduced himself at the American Film Directors’ Association gathering. Negahdar Jamali, an Iranian from Shiraz introduced himself the same way when I first met him without knowing John Ford that well. He introduced himself with self-confidence and without any weakness in his statement; not in the Monument Valley or in the Grand Canyon but in Shiraz and the deserts surrounding the city. He has been making Western films continuously for the past 35 years under hard conditions, and this film is about the struggle with his family, friends, society,… to make what he likes the most in his life “Western Movies”.