Special Programs in Focus
The Day I Became a WomanThe Day | Became a Woman is a ′compressed file′ containing the social reality that women in Iran face. This feature is comprised of three segments, beginning with the perspective of a nine-year-old about to begin life as a woman i...
Special Programs in Focus
Luna PapaThis film tells the themes of ′love′ and ′life′ in a beautiful and fantastic, yet sad fashion. In a small village 17 year old girl Mamlakat lives with her father and an ignorant brother. One moonlit night, she goes to the theatre ...
Special Programs in Focus
Last HolidayIn 1979, when the Republic of Kazakhstan was still a part of the Soviet Union, suppressed rage and the loneliness fill Almaty. On the last day of classes, three high school students - a Russian Valera, a Jew Jacob, and a Kazakh Ka...
Special Programs in Focus
The DoorThe Door is a part of an omnibus film, The Tales of Kish, sponsored by the Bureau of Tourism of Kish Island where there is a famous resort. Nasser Taghvai, Abolfazl Jalili, and Bahram Beyzai participated in its production. In the ...
Special Programs in Focus
Testing DemocracyMohsen Makhmalbaf′s cinematic vision is that a film should escape the privilege of class. This 40-minute video reflects this notion. Working with Shahaboddin Farokh-Yar, who helped him filming his previous work, The Silence, this ...
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Bang-Ja and Hyang-DanThis is a 70′s adaptation of Choon-Hyang that centers around two sidekicks, Bang-Ja and Hyang-Dan. Popular comedy actors from that period provide social-satire in an implicit manner disguised within a classical story, while Bang-J...
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The Burnt SoulSadyk, an old man, wakes with a premonition about death. It makes him remember his long life, and these reminiscences are the sequences of the story. The moment when life comes to its end, our film ends too. His parents died very ...
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The AppleThe Apple brought worldwide fame to Samira Makhmalbaf, who was just 18 year-old when she directed this film. Shooting began when she saw a television broadcast about a 65 year-old man who raised his twin daughters locked inside th...
Special Programs in Focus
How Samira Made the BlackboardA girl′s dream of voluntarily leaving school to make films is perhaps much more dramatic than a film itself. She learned film from her father, and finally came to make films with her own ideas. The Apple, her first film, made at t...
Special Programs in Focus
The Place on the TricorneIn a small apartment somewhere in Almaty, two 20-years old boys puff on grass. A radio is playing; thin white smoke spirals toward the ceiling; tramways rattle by outside. The two smokers slump into a mellow half-sleep and the her...