Iranian cinema
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Interview with Iranian filmmaker Shahram Mokri
"We are lucky to be alive today"
In August 1978, four men set fire to the Cinema Rex in the Iranian city of Abadan, killing more than four hundred people inside. The event is said to have started the Iranian Revolution to overthrow the Shah's regime. Forty years later, "Careless Crime" by Iranian filmmaker Shahram Mokri depicts four men planning to burn down a cinema in a contemporary Iran where ghosts of the past haunt the current society. Interview by Schayan Riaz
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Film review: Iranian-German movie "Bandar Band"
Hope amid adversity
Iranian director Manijeh Hekmat expected the production of her latest movie to go ahead as planned – but then she found herself having to improvise. The resulting film is more than just an homage to Iran's landscapes. By Heike Mund
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Interview with the Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof
"Devils donʹt exist"
Mohammad Rasoulof's "There Is No Evil" won the main prize at the Berlinale. Maryam Mirza talked to the director, who is currently forbidden from leaving Iran, about his film
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Winner of the Berlinale 2020: "Sheytan Vojud Nadarad"
There is no evil, unless it's perpetrated
Mohammad Rasoulof’s film "Sheytan Vojud Nadarad" (There is No Evil) won the Berlinale, perpetuating the robust presence of Iranian cinema at the festival during the post-Kosslick era. The Golden Bear went to a powerful episodic film addressing the issue of difficult decisions and their consequences. In Iran, and everywhere else. By Rene Wildangel
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Iran's 37th Fajr Film Festival
Politics collide with the big screen in Tehran
With prominent film makers cancelling their attendance, the organisers of Iran's flagship cultural event are under pressure. The Fajr film festival in Tehran shows how culture can be used to make a political point. By Philipp Jedicke
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Book review: Pajand Soleymani's "Immer mit Zucker"
Bittersweet life
In her novel "Immer mit Zucker" Pajand Soleymani creates a surreal world of cinematic images, intellectual discussion and dreamlike transformation. An unusual reading experience distantly reminiscent of the stories of "One Thousand and One Nights". Volker Kaminski read the book
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Film review: Hossein Pourseifi's "Morgen sind wir frei"
Love in the time of revolution
"Morgen sind wir frei" – Tomorrow we'll be free – charts a love story under the baleful glare of a face painted on the side of a building in Tehran. It is a film about the hopes of a German-Iranian family during and after the revolution in Iran with all the pain of terror, oppression and separation. By Maryam Ansari
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Focus on Iran: 62nd Leipzig Documentary and Animation Festival
At the Dok Leipzig Documentary Film Festival, Iran was not an official focus of the programme. But Iran-related films were among the festival's highlights. Impressions by Jochen Kurten
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Jafar Panahiʹs "Three Faces"
An anti-feminist manifesto
In May 2018, Jafar Panahiʹs film "Three Faces" was screened at the Cannes International Film Festival and won the prize for the best screenplay. It is the Iranian film directorʹs fourth film since the Mullah regime sentenced him to a 20-year ban on travel and work in 2010. Review by Fahimeh Farsaie
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Interview with award-winning Iranian film director Sadaf Foroughi
Ava, my adolescent self
Sadaf Foroughiʹs debut feature film, AVA, examines the complexities of the relationship between a mother and a teenage daughter living in present day Tehran. The movie is both a fascinating character study and an examination of the damage caused by the rules governing women's behaviour in Iranian society. Interview by Richard Marcus
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"Visions of Iran": the Iranian Film Festival in Cologne
Halabja – casting a long shadow
The First Gulf War, the chemical attack on the Iraqi village of Halabja in 1988 and the role played by foreign companies in the build-up of chemical weapons in the region were the main topics at the most recent "Visions of Iran" film festival in Cologne. By Bernd G. Schmitz
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Film review: Jafar Panahi's "Three Faces"
Road movie against patriarchy
Although he has been banned from film-making since 2010, Jafar Panahi keeps working – albeit without the approval of Iranian authorities. His latest work, "Three Faces", has been enthusiastically received in Cannes. By Suzanne Cords