Nargess (1992)
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Various women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Statrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.
Acclaimed Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi (A Time for Drunken Horses) directs Monica Bellucci and Iranian superstar Behrouz Vossoughi in this haunting, dreamlike love story that spans three decades. (TIFF)
An American woman, trapped in Islamic Iran by her brutish husband, must find a way to escape with her daughter as well.
In 2009, Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was covering Iran's volatile elections for Newsweek. One of the few reporters living in the country with access to US media, he made an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, in a taped interview with comedian Jason Jones. The interview was intended as satire, but if the Tehran authorities got the joke they didn't like it - and it would quickly came back to haunt Bahari when he was rousted from his family home and thrown into prison. Making his directorial debut, Jon Stewart tells the tale of Bahari's months-long imprisonment and interrogation in this powerful and affecting docudrama featuring a potent and performance by Gael GarcÃa Bernal recounting Bahari's efforts to maintain his hope and his sanity in the face of isolation and persecution-through memories of his family, recollections of the music he loves, and thoughts of his wife and unborn child.
An Iranian man drives his truck in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
Corky, a tough female ex con and her lover Violet concoct a scheme to steal millions of stashed mob money and pin the blame on Violet's crooked boyfriend Caeser.
In a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Kurdish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. When Lateef is given heavier tasks to compensate for new Afghan worker Rahmat, he resents his displacement and treats Rahmat cruelly. After one of his pranks, however, Lateef discovers Rahmat's secret--he is a girl named Baran. Latif's heart softens towards Baran and he shows his new affection for her by doing what he can to ease the hardships she suffers at work. revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.Baran is a 2001 Iranian film directed by Majid Majidi, based on an original script by Majid Majidi. The movie is set during recent times in which there are a large number of Afghan refugees living on the outskirts of Tehran. Almost a silent movie, Baran won a number of awards both nationally and internationally for the director and writer Majid Majidi.
Recently released from a mental hospital, Ricky ties up Marina, a film star he once had sex with and keeps her hostage.
Behrani, an Iranian immigrant buys a California bungalow, thinking he can fix it up, sell it again, and make enough money to send his son to college. However, the house is the legal property of former drug addict Kathy. After losing the house in an unfair legal dispute with the county, she is left with nowhere to go. Wanting her house back, she hires a lawyer and befriends a police officer. Neither Kathy nor Behrani have broken the law, so they find themselves involved in a difficult moral dilemma.
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA 'exfiltration' specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador.
Hannah is a young woman who lives on her own. She starts to get this feeling that she is being watched. The phone starts ringing at night and when she answers, no one is there. Is she imagining everything or is it for real?
Centers on a group of weary Middle Eastern refugees who have made their way to Turkey to apply for European visas.
For Shirin, being part of a perfect Persian family isnât easy. Acceptance eludes her from all sides: her family doesnât know sheâs bisexual, and her ex-girlfriend, Maxine , canât understand why she doesnât tell them. Even the six-year-old boys in her moviemaking class are too ADD to focus on her for more than a second. Following a family announcement of her brotherâs betrothal to a parentally approved Iranian prize catch, Shirin embarks on a private rebellion involving a series of pansexual escapades, while trying to decipher what went wrong with Maxine.
The year is 1919. German troops retreat from Ukraine. The Directory, the Ukrainian national government lead by Symon Petliura, takes control of Kyiv. Meanwhile, the Bolshevik division commanded by Mykola Shchors is marching on the capital. The Bolsheviks capture the cities of Vinnytsia, Zhmerynka, and others one by one, but lose Berdychiv to Petliuraâs forces. They are demoralized by the defeat. By his personal example of courage and military skill, Shchors inspires the retreating Red troops and leads them to victory over the enemy.
Paris-Tehran. A rootless love story between Gecko, young and free, and Anahita, an Iranian woman in exile - tangled up in History and steeped in Internet, unique and spontaneous
Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?
A young Italian actress embarks on a self-destructive spree of sex, drugs and other excess while doing some soul searching to find the path for redemption.
The story is about the world of a small family with familiar dreams and not so remarkable problems. The mother is trying to lead everything to save her family, but small events disarrange all her plans.
This film focuses on an aging starlette (Silvia Perez) was once an it-girl. She returns to her hometown for her niece's birthday party and has to deal with her conservative family who does not agree with her chosen lifestyle.
An 8 year old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.
As single mom Grace juggles work, bills, and her affair with a married doctor, her daughter, Ansiedad, plots a shortcut to adulthood after finding inspiration in the coming-of-age stories she's reading for school.
Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.
After four years apart, Ahmad returns to his wife Marie in Paris in order to progress their divorce. During his brief stay, he cannot help noticing the strained relationship between Marie and her daughter Lucie. As he attempts to improve matters between mother and daughter Ahmad unwittingly lifts the lid on a long buried secret...
Filmmaking icon Agnès Varda, the award-winning director regarded by many as the grandmother of the French new wave, turns the camera on herself with this unique autobiographical documentary. Composed of film excerpts and elaborate dramatic re-creations, Varda's self-portrait recounts the highs and lows of her professional career, the many friendships that affected her life and her longtime marriage to cinematic giant Jacques Demy.
After an Afghanistan-born woman who lives in Canada receives a letter from her suicidal sister, she takes a perilous journey through Afghanistan to try to find her.
Three flatmates in Mexico City face uncertainties: LucÃa who has a great job as an art director for TV commercials is abusing alcohol and cocaine. She risks losing her job, going to prison for assault, and she's woefully in love with a bullfighter who may be two-timing her. Carmen, an artist without income, can be manic - snorting lots of cocaine and hanging out with a gay man and a transvestite. What's her future? Hanna contemplates divorce from Abraham, a wealthy momma's boy, and she's disoriented by feelings of attraction to Sandra, a customer at her jewelry store. Can any of these poor little rich girls sort things out in a world of excess?
This film tells the story of a semi modern Iranian couple, who are trying to fight the old beliefs & old generation. This is a failing battle because the man is not strong enough.
Iranian musicians Negar and Ashkan look for band members to play at a London concert ... and the visa that allows them to leave Tehran to do so.
A sensation when released in 1999 in Iran, Two Women charts the lives of two promising architecture students over the course of the first turbulent years of the Islamic Republic. Tahimine Milani creates this scathing portrait of those traditions - aided by official indifference - which conspire to trap women and stop them from realizing their full potential; the inclusion of frank depictions of domestic violence was hailed by many as a breakthrough in dealing with a long taboo subject.
Ed Okin used to have a boring life. He used to have trouble getting to sleep. Then one night, he met Diana. Now, Ed's having trouble staying alive.
The happy lives of three best friends from school are brutally upended when Hei (Ivy Chen) breaks up with her fiancé (Wallace Chung). High flyer Kimmy (Fiona Sit) and director May (Yang Zishan) close ranks to help a devastated Hei move on, but she clings to her old feelings despite meeting a highly eligible prospect (Shawn Yue). Whilst May considers leaving the film set to travel the world with a free spirited musician (Vanness Wu); rivalry over the same guy threatens to tear Kimmy and May apart. An unexpected, shocking incident provides a climactic test. Can the girls keep their friendship together?
Torn straight from the headlines, Michael Winterbottom's compelling and prescient 'In This World' follows young Afghan Jamal and his older cousin Enayat as they embark on a hazardous overland trip from their refugee camp at Peshawar, north-west Pakistan. Entering Turkey on foot through a snowy, Kurdish-controlled pass, the pair again take their lives into their hands and face suffocation when they are locked in a freight container on a ship bound for Italy. From there they plan to travel on to Paris, the Sangatte refuge centre and ultimately asylum in London.
Reunited after years apart, childhood sweethearts William and Janne are forced to confront the dark secrets of their past-and the menacing presence of William's pathologically jealous brother â in this haunting story from celebrated Norwegian director Sara Johnsen. (TIFF)
THE BRIGHT DAY weaves a story that has its roots in the complexity of Iranâs draconian laws governing capital punishment. A kindergarten teacher hopes to aid the father of one of her young students, a man accused of manslaughter, by convincing each of seven reluctant witnesses to come forward. No one lacks a hidden agenda in this drama in which shades of truth collide with self-interest and the specter of payback. (Gene Siskel Film Center)
Before crossing paths with Peyton, falling for a woman was an unimaginable situation for Elena, a straight wife and mother. The friendship between Peyton, an out lesbian writer, and Elena, the wife of an anti-gay paster who has never experienced true love, transforms swiftly from a one-sided crush into a torrid extramarital affair. Despite their attraction, Peyton, jaded in a number of ways, has strong reservations about becoming involved with a married straight woman; Elena, recognizing that she is caught in a loveless marriage, can barely begin to rationalize the nature and magnitude of her desires. As their relationship evolves, Elena confronts the choice of leaving her husband or ending her involvement with Peyton to save her unraveling and unrewarding marriage and return to a drab and automated life. Above all, Elena faces the looming challenge of convincing Peyton that the two women have a bright future together despite their unfavorable circumstances
A young man's drive to avenge for his sister and brother.
Titus Andronicus returns from the wars and sees his sons and daughters taken from him, one by one. Shakespeare's goriest and earliest tragedy.
The movie is centered on a couple, Nader and Simin, and their 11-year-old daughter, Termeh. Nader and Simin are about to leave the country for good; however, Nader has a change of heart and decides to stay and look after his father who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Simin is determined to get a divorce and leave the country with her daughter, but the court does not find in her favor. Simin goes to live with her mother and Termeh returns to live with her father with the hope that her mother will be back some day.
When Song Qi stumbles upon her boyfriend's affair with her best friend, her life quickly starts falling apart and she is subsequently drawn into a quicksand of revenge and murder. Though all is not as it seems and Song Qi will have to embark on a twisted journey into her past and the very depths of her own mind
Victor Bukowski is an out-of-work actor with problems. He's got a lousy agent, he has a habit of falling out with directors and he's still in love with his ex-girlfriend. However, Victor is about to embark on an unexpected emotional journey which will make him confront his future and his past mistakes.
The Traveler is a 1974 Iranian drama film directed by Abbas Kiarostami that tells the story of Hassan Darabi, a troublesome, amoral 10-year-old boy in a small Iranian town. He wishes to see the Iran national football team play an important match in Tehran. In order to achieve that, he scams his friends and neighbors. After a number of adventures, he finally reaches Tehran stadium at the time of the match. The film addresses the boy's determination in his goal and his indifference to the effects of his actions on other people, particularly those who are closest to him. In its element, the film is an examination of human behavior and the balance of right and wrong.
Anthology film of six shorts by leading Korean directors. Park Chan-Wook, tackles racial prejudice and the economic exploitation of immigrant workers through the real-life story of a Nepalese woman in Korea. Jeong Jae-Eun, tackles the plight of a paedophile released into the community. Yeo Gyun-Dong, invites disabled actor Kim Moon-Joo to re-enact his most famous protest. Im Soon-Rye, goes for the engrained sexism of Korean men with superb wit and, Park Jin-Pyo, confronts the horror of children forced into oral surgery to improve their English-speaking ability.
The advocate for a young Iranian refugee held in detention. Amir Ali claims to be an Iranian student persecuted by the government but the Department of Immigration dispute his identity. When Julia meets Amir, he is severely depressed and close to deportation. Julia throws herself obsessively into Amir's case, causing friction between Julia and her husband, Peter. Julia eventually frees Amir and the young Iranian man moves in with Peter and Julia. As Julia helps Amir adjust to ordinary life, she finds herself increasingly attracted to this handsome, damaged young man. But she also starts to see the subtle cracks in Amir's story. Is he really who he claims he is? Or does he have a darker, more dangerous history?
Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.
Ronah's life unravels when she starts working with a new client, Johnny.
Mustafa Moradi is aching to find a girlfriend. On the other end of the city, Linnea is desperately searching for a guy with style, courage and a burning passion.
This is a comedy about people who work in the theater, live for the theater, think of nothing but the theater. The director seems crazy, the art director has idiotic ideas, and the acting coach is eccentric: they even look like brothers, related by their common obsession for the theater, linked as one with the actors. The new project is Mozart's Don Giovanni, in which the director insists to give it a brand new interpretation and an avant-garde treatment. Now, he has to deal with the violent objection from the actors, the musicians, the singing coach, the stage manager, and even the cafe bar attendants and the cleaners. The situation is further complicated as the director is such a womanizer like Don Juan... and his lovers and kids keep bugging him throughout the rehearsal...
Turtles can fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iran border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
Ten stories meet at Kerala Cafe.
A 17th century Hungarian countess embarks on a murderous undertaking, with the belief that bathing in the blood of virgins will preserve her beauty.
Taraneh is a model 15-year-old Iranian girl, studious and filial, who supports her ailing grandmother with a job at a photo shop and visits her father (who has been imprisoned for reasons never made clear in the film) bearing gifts of cigarettes and magazines. But when Amir, a young man from a well-off family, sets his sights on Taraneh and courts her with an intensity that borders on stalking, her well-ordered life spirals into chaos.
Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, capital punishment is carried out according to Islamic law, which gives the family of the victim ownership of the offender's life. Day Break - based on a compilation of true stories and shot inside Tehran's century-old prison - revolves around the imminent execution of Mansour, a man found guilty of murder. When the family of the victim repeatedly fails to show up on the appointed day, Mansour's execution is postponed again and again. Stuck inside the purgatory of his own mind, he waits as time passes on without him, caught between life and death, retribution and forgiveness.
An 18-year-old beauty develops an attraction to an older photographer.
The movie is the story of a gang of men who decide to participate in Iran-Iraq war, also known as First Gulf War, which lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. the main character, Suzuki, who is there to satisfy his beloved's father that he is worthy of marrying his daughter, goes through some moving experiences in the war and his character changes to a level that he even tries to sacrifice himself to save the others in the war. the Movie ends by his martyrdom.
A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.
A fidgety, wisecracking video store clerk develops a fixation on a particularly reclusive customer, a frequent visitor to the pornography section of Cinefile, the video store where he works in Los Angeles. After multiple failures to impress her during their brief daily transactions, he finds her street address in the store's database, drives to her apartment building and initiates an unconventional campaign to win her affections.
An acclaimed stage performer, Dorothy still struggled with the challenge of her color, in a time that wouldn't let some stars in by the front door. Yet against the odds she beat out many more famous rivals for the role of "Carmen Jones", becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award. Marriages and affairs would break her heart, but her heart was strong. Seductive and easily seduced, she was born to be a star - with all the glory and all the pain of being loved, abused, cheated, glorified, undermined and undefeated. Here was a woman who wouldn't wait in the wings. Halle Berry stars as Dorothy Dandrige.
Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family, which includes: a pregnant daughter whose husband beats her regularly; a teenage son, who's been getting into trouble due to his burgeoning career in radical politics; and an older son who goes to great lengths--such as attempting to sell the family's meager house--in order to get an engineering job in Japan as a means of getting out of Iran.
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