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Interview • Milad Alami
SAN SEBASTIÁN 2017: Cineuropa chatted to Swedish-Iranian filmmaker Milad Alami, whose feature debut, The Charmer, is currently taking part in New Directors at San Sebastián..

Wild (2014)
Mini-Odyssey of a broken character
'I’m going to walk myself back to the woman my mother thought I was.' Powerfully moving and emotionally..

An Iranian film director
On the country's censorship
How does censorship work in Iran? The FRANCE 24 Observers team is publishing a two-part interview about censorship and Iranian cinema..

Mountain | Monte (2016)
Now, at 70 years old, Amir Naderi is a true international filmmaker. After "Mountain" (made in Italy) he is now ready to come home to US and start all over again. "It is just the beginning,"..

10th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco
Welcome to the 10th Annual Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco. This year, the festival presents 40 films from Iran, USA, Italy, France, Canada..

Shirin Neshat • Interview
VENICE 2017
Iranian artist Shirin Neshat remembers an iconic figure from Arab music on the big screen in Looking for Oum Kulthum, a film in competition in the Giornate degli Autori

VENICE 2017 • Interview
Emre Yeksan's The Gulf
“We live in a period of slow decay, and the smell won’t go away any time soon.” Emre Yeksan’s feature debut, The Gulf, has been premiered in the International..

Video Essay Explores
Orson Welles’ ‘F For Fake’
Most cineastes associate Orson Welles with films like “Touch of Evil” and “Citizen Kane.” But his 1974 oddity, is worth seeking out for those who wish to dig..

‘MOTHER! • VENICE 2017
7 Things to Know About
Darren Aronofsky's 'Mother' centers on a couple whose relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence...

Shirin Neshat • VENICE
Looking for Oum Kulthum
“story of an Iranian woman filmmaker, living in exile, who dares to make a film about an iconic Arab singer without being Arabic herself,” Neshat said in her first..

VENICE 2017 • Orizzonti
'Oblivion Verses'
Iranian filmmaker Alireza Khatami is presenting his debut feature Oblivion Verses in Orizzonti at Venice, where Cineuropa spoke to him about fantasy..

VENICE 2017 • Competition
Ai WeiWei's 'Human Flow'
Artist Ai WeiWei is in the Venice competition with this documentary shot in 2015 and 2016, uncovering the growing crisis of displaced people across the..

Asghar Farhadi begins filming 'Everybody Knows'
The two-time Oscar winner is shooting this European co-production in Spain, with a Spanish-speaking cast headlined by Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz..

The Song Of Scorpions
Anup Singh’s ambitious third feature stars Golshifteh Farahani and Irrfan Khan, following an independent woman as she struggles against hardship and treachery to remain true to her own instincts..

Tokyo Sonata :: Movie Review
An adventurous work both disturbing and ultimately moving. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's first domestic drama is music to general audience's ears..

The Homesman (2014)
A genuine art film
"The Homesman," despite the title, is about women. Women are the center of the action, women drive the action forward, women are not only damsels in..

MONSIEUR IBRAHIM :: Movie Review
Tender but never sappy, Monsieur Ibrahim brings two people of vastly different age and background together in ways that are touching, and telling..

The Innocents (2016)
'The Innocents’ is a profound meditation on a forgotten moment in history. Lou de Laage shines in Anne Fontaine's provocative historical drama. When Anne Fontaine’s “The Innocents” made its..

VENICE 2017 :: Venice Days
Samira Makhmalbaf named as jury president for Venice Days 2017. The Iranian actress and director will chair the jury made up of 28 young viewers from..

NETWORK (1976)
It's never been more timely
Criticised by some at the time for a certain naivety and lack of subtlety, this remains one of the most devastating condemnations of the media's urge to exploit..

Woody Allen & his New Orleans Jazz Band at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival
The iconic filmmaker and clarinet player Woody Allen joins the international headliners at the Copenhagen Jazz Festival

Death And The Maiden
A thought-provoking piece
"Death and the Maiden" is said to be based on events in Chile, but it could take place in any of the many countries where rule is by force and intimidation..

'Insyriated'(2017)
Gripping from start to finish
This nerve-wracking study of life in Damascus won an Audience Award at Berlinale. Hiam Abbass holds together a household under siege in..

Ali & Nino (2016)
A fascinating story of two young people in love who found themselves between East and West cultures during World War I and Civil War when young democratic Azerbaijan Republic got squashed by..

Dangerous Beauty (1998)
Venezia's Hidden Treasure
Based on the true story of Veronica Franco, a well-born Venetian beauty who deliberately chose the life of a courtesan because it seemed a better choice than..

The Polygon People
The Documentary
A First look at the ‘most nuked place on Earth’ where Soviet Union detonated 456 bombs over the course of 40 years. A look at the way locals’ lives were..

‘When God Sleeps’ (2017)
winner of the Golden Heynal
The best music documentary film and hence the winner of the Golden Heynal award at the 57th Krakow Film Festival, by the decisio of the Jury under the..

Cannes 2017 • Awards
And the winners are...
Ruben Östlund’s The Square wins the Palme d’Or. Pedro Almodóvar’s jury divided its prizes across a generally deserving spread of films..

Retrospective • Dustin Hoffman • The Graduate
Dustin Hoffman turns 80 later this year, the Irish Film Institute (IFI) takes the opportunity to celebrate the work of Dustin Hoffman, on the occasion of..

Mohammad Rasoulof's
Goodbye | Be omide didar
Another superb piece of work produced in Iran. Let's pause for a minute and reflect on just how difficult it is to get these movies made..

A Master's Final Frames
Cannes 2017
Movingly presented at the largest cinema in Cannes, the Iranian auteur Abbas kiarostami's final film may be the most experimental ever shown at the..

Iranian filmmaker wins major prize at Cannes
Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof's bleak drama "A Man of Integrity" won the Un Certain Regard competition at the Cannes film festival on Saturday..

Kantemir Balagov's 'Closeness' at Cannes
A social realist debut from Kantemir Balagov is an intense film influenced by the Dardenne brothers. For the Un Certain Regard selection at Cannes..

Cannes’ FIPRESCI Prize goes to (Beats Per Minute)
The international critics have crowned Robin Campillo’s film BPM (Beats Per Minute); Closeness and The Nothing Factory also awarded..

The award winners of the Cinéfondation unveiled
Student films from Belgium, Iran and France, awarded at the Cinéfondation. The jury of the Cinéfondation, chaired by Cristian Mungiu, has handed prizes..

The Golden Eye goes to 'Faces, Places' at Cannes
The film by Agnès Varda and JR has won the award for the best documentary screened across the various Cannes selections this year..

'They' (2017)
Movie Review • Cannes 2017
A minor-key portrait of an identity crisis. Jane Campion executive produced Iranian-born director Anahita Ghazvinizadeh's debut feature..

Susan Sarandon talks film and politics • Cannes 2017
In the run-up to the screening, Sarandon, who was named an ambassador for the beauty brand last year, sat down with WWD to talk film..

Loveless (2017)
Cannes 2017 • Movie Review
Such a haunting experience that it remains absorbing even when it doesn't go anywhere. Russia has always been a cold and dreary place in the cinema of..

Get Out (2017)
With the ambitious and challenging “Get Out,” Jordan Peele reveals that we may someday consider directing the greatest talent of this fascinating actor and writer..

Karim Moussaoui
Interview • Cannes 2017
Cineuropa met up with Karim Moussaoui to discuss his first film 'Until the Birds Return', presented in the Un Certain Regard section at the 70th Cannes Film..

Alejandro Jodorowsky's 'Endless Poetry' (2016)
Alejandro Jodorowsky's 'Endless Poetry' is the most accessible movie he has ever made, and it may also be the best. It's Felliniesque and moving..

The Other Side of Hope
Movie review
Five years after Le Havre, Finland’s deadpan morose-romantic master delivers the second part of a prospective ‘dockyard trilogy’ with this..

Lerd (2017) • Cannes
Interview with M. Rassoulof
Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rassoulof represents Iran at the Un Certain Regard competition section of the 70th Cannes Film Festival with his latest film ..

Arnaud Desplechin talks about 'Ismael’s Ghosts'
CANNES 2017: French director Arnaud Desplechin talks about Ismael’s Ghosts, which was screened out of competition at the opening of the 70th Cannes Film..

Happy End (2017)
Cannes Film Festival
First Clip from Michael Haneke’s ‘Happy End’ Features a Very Unhappy Dinner Party. After all, this is the director behind such films as 'The White Ribbon,' 'Amour..

Vanessa Redgrave Sparks
'The Loves of Isadora'
Karel Reisz' biographical portrait of Isadora Duncan stars Vanessa Redgrave as the famed modern dancer, who gained notoriety for her revolutionary..

Wild Tales (2015)
An inventive Argentinian film
Argentina’s “Wild Tales” comes as such an extraordinary surprise. Perhaps the best multi-story feature this reviewer has ever seen..

Noureddin Zarrinkelk
Life Achievement Award
A tribute to legendary Iranian/American animation director, writer and illustrator. Born on April 10, 1937 in Iran, Zarrinkelk founded the first school of Animation..

"The Idea of a Lake"
By Milagros Mumenthaler
Finding inspiration in the true story of a woman whose father disappeared during the civilian-military dictatorship in Argentina..

Tehran Taboo (2017)
First animation in Critics’ Week
In his animated drama, the German-Iranian filmmaker paints a dark picture of the metropolis, a city of prohibitions, draconian dogmas and restrictive laws..

The Day Will Come
London Film Festival 2016
Based on real stories from a boy home called ‘godhavn’, where lots of boys were victims of violent and sexual abuse and medical experiments...

Respiro (2003)
The Critics' Week Grand Prize Winner at Cannes 2002
A cheerful, life-affirming film, strong in its energy, about vivid characters ; using mental illness as an entertainment..

Southside with You (2016)
Barack and Michelle Obama's First Date
A mostly-true account of the first date between Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. A look back on a fateful..

History of the Festival de Cannes
A NEW FESTIVAL IS BORN
The first edition of the Festival was originally set to be held in Cannes in 1939 under the presidency of Louis..

Hidden Reserves:
Immortality, but at what price?
Vienna in the near future. An insurance company has created a system in which people do not even have a right to..

Slavoj Zizek's
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
You don't have to share Slavoj Zizek's materialist philosophy to find his analyses of culture and movies witty, insightful..

The Birth of a Nation
Biblical passion and Cheesy emotion
Nate Parker’s heartfelt account of Nat Turner, the slave who led a rebellion in 1830s Virginia, is conventionally paced..

Graduation (2016)
A Study of Grubby Bureaucratic Compromise
Graduation marks yet another well-written and powerfully acted look at morality and societal decay from..

Incendies (2010)
A Powerful, Disturbing film
Adapted from the 2003 play by Wajdi Mouawad, twins Jeanne and Simon leave Canada for the Middle East to fulfill their mother’s final wish..

Spotlight (2015)
The Power Of The Press
The true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese..

Before the Flood (2016)
An Inconvenient Truth
Here is a heartfelt, decent, educational documentary about the most important issue of our time – climate change – presented by A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio..

I, Daniel Blake (2016)
Winner of the Palme d’Or
I, Daniel Blake marks yet another well-told chapter in director Ken Loach's powerfully populist filmography. Returning to filmmaking after saying..

"Razor’s Edge: The Legacy of Iranian Actresses"
A look at the often controversial role of women in Iranian cinema during the secular period from the 1930s to the Islamic Revolution in 1979..

Afghan Film Festival
12-21. April 2017
After much planning and inspirational talk, we can finally unveil a special cultural event on Danish soil: Afghan Film Festival in Copenhagen..

Bahman Ghobadi's
‘Rhino Season’
Produced by Martin Scorsese, this is the first film Ghobadi has made in exile. The work of a great talent marshaling all of his powers as a cinematic storyteller..

Dying for a Song
"Art is education, art is existence, its everything"
A documentary about the musicians being persecuted for raising their voices against political, cultural or religious..

A Simple Plan • Review
A Frozen Setting Frames a Chilling Tale
"You work for the American Dream--you don't steal it." So says a Minnesota family man early in "A Simple Plan," but he is..

Macon Blair’s
'I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore' (2017)
What's delightful about Macon Blair’s movie is how consistently the film challenges our worst assumptions..

Blue Jay (2016)
A trip down memory lane
Meeting by chance when they return to their tiny California hometown, two former high-school sweethearts reflect on their shared past..

Paterson (2016)
'I breathe poetry'
Set in the present in Paterson, New Jersey, this is a tale about a bus driver and poet. The film adds another refreshingly unvarnished entry to..

To Walk Invisible (2016)
A serious Brontë biopic
We finally have a biographic film that feels modern, in that it takes into account all we now know about the lives of the Brontë sisters, and throws away old..

Ixcanul (2016)
Life doesn't regenerate without untameable fury
You can sense the director's respect for his subject in the movie's unhurried dramatic rhythms, its grounding in..

A Man Called Ove • Review
Swedish Oscar nominee for Foreign Language Film for Oscars 2017, tells the familiar story of the curmudgeonly old man whose grumpy life is brightened by forces beyond his control..

Oscars 2017
Foreign language Oscar nominees decry 'climate of fanaticism in US'. The six directors in the running for this year’s foreign language Oscar have issued a joint statement blaming..

Berlinale 2017 • Awards
The 2017 Berlinale awards have just been announced. Ildikó Enyedi’s Hungarian drama 'On Body and Soul' won the Golden Bear for best film at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday...

A Quiet Passion (2016)
The story of American poet Emily Dickinson from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognized artist. This poised and painterly rendition of the..

Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann
The clash of personalities
Toni Erdmann pairs carefully constructed, three-dimensional characters in a tenderly funny character study that's both genuinely moving and..

Tom Ford's 'Nocturnal Animals' (2016)
Well-acted and lovely to look at, Nocturnal Animals further underscores writer-director Tom Ford's distinctive visual and narrative skill...

Asghar Farhadi Won’t Attend Oscar Ceremony
The Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, whose film “The Salesman” is nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign-language film category decided to not attend..

Barry Jenkins’ masterful “Moonlight”
'Moonlight' uses one man's story to offer a remarkable and brilliantly crafted look at lives too rarely seen in cinema...

Film Review: Pablo Larraín's Neruda (2016)
"Inventive, intelligent, and beautifully filmed, Neruda transcends the traditional biopic structure to look at the meaning beyond the details of its subject's life."..

Iranian actress to boycott Oscars
The lead actor in an Iranian drama nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language film category has said she will boycott this year’s ceremony..

Oscar nominations to: Land of Mine and Silent Nights
Martin Zandvliet's "Land of Mine" and Aske Bang's "Silent Nights" will be taking part in the world's most prestigious film event, selected as nominees in..

Manchester by the Sea
Manchester by the Sea delivers affecting drama populated by full-bodied characters, marking another strong step forward for writer-director Kenneth Lonergan..

Gernika (2016) • Review
The fates of Henry – a cynical American correspondent who has lost his soul – and Teresa, one of the Republic’s censors and in charge of overseeing the news that journalists can send abroad..

YAHYA DIDN’T KEEP QUIET
This gentle and wholly satisfying two-character tale pairs Motamed-Aria, Iran’s internationally renowned star, with a precocious and highly appealing child actor...

Operation Avalanche
Why do we need to question the authenticity of one of humanity's most awe-inspiring achievements? Matt Johnson and co-writer Josh Boles never try to address this thorny issue..

We Are Many (2014)
A necessary reminder of a gigantic scandal
The story of the biggest demonstration in human history, which took place on 15th February 2003..

Me (2016)
In spite of being warned to stop things she is doing, Azar nevertheless continues with her schemes and soon it becomes apparent that she's addicted to the thrill, she just can't stop..

Shell (2013)
Life’s a gas station
Shell, the captivating debut from the young Scottish filmmaker Scott Graham, finds claustrophobia in the widest-open landscape, and isolation in the closest..

Silence (2016)
"Silence" is a monumental work, and a punishing one. It puts you through hell with no promise of enlightenment, only a set of questions and propositions, sensations and experiences..

'Stefan Zweig:
Farewell to Europe' (2016)
World-famous Austrian writer Stefan Zweig fled the rise of the Nazis - but exile in Brazil brought him no happiness. In 1942, he took his own life..

Sweet Bean (2016)
Movie Review
Sweet Bean's deliberate pace demands patience, but the satisfying simplicity of its story -- and Kirin Kiki's absorbing performance -- yield an array of riches..

'Copenhagen' (2014)
Movie Review
Mark Raso's absorbing film has a delicate nuance that will linger after the popcorn's gone. A guy and a girl bicycle slowly through the streets of..

Movie Review
EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF
Every Man for Himself is a single seamless endeavor, a stunning, original work about which there is still a lot to say, but there's time. I trust it will outlive us all...

Luis Bunuel's
'The Exterminating Angel'
A film by Luis Bunuel that is a macabre comedy, a mordant view of human nature that suggests we harbor savage instincts and unspeakable secrets..

Beloved Sisters (2015)
As lengthy and passionate as a drawn-out kiss, Beloved Sisters is a beautifully made romantic drama set in 18th century Germany that's smart, sensual and emotionally resonant..

'I don't vote with my vagina'
Susan Sarandon explains why she's not backing Hillary Clinton. Susan Sarandon has had a troubled relationship with Hillary Clinton, and the actress has..

THE SECRETS OF THE US ELECTION
Whistleblower Julian Assange has given one of his most incendiary interviews ever in a John Pilger Special, courtesy of Dartmouth Films..

'Snowden' • Oliver Stone's New Thrilling Docudrama
The story of Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed the scope of just how little privacy we have in a post-9/11 world..

The Internet's Own Boy • The Story of Aaron Swartz
Programming prodigy and information activist Aaron Swartz achieved groundbreaking work in social justice and political organizing..

'Under the Shadow' and the politics of horror
As a mother and daughter struggle to cope with the terrors of the post-revolution, war torn Tehran of the 80s, a mysterious evil begins to haunt..

Maria Larsson's Everlasting Moments • Review
Rarely is there a film that evokes our sympathy more deeply than "Everlasting Moments." It is a great story of love and hope, told tenderly and..

Utopia (2013) • Review
This powerful film by John Pilger looks at the awful truth behind white Australia's dysfunctional relationship with Indigenous Australians. Exploring offenses practiced by popular media..

Carnage • Review
Brief, brutal and barmy
The message, if any, is that good manners are often skin deep, that compassion and forgiveness are hard to come by, and that when it comes to..

Little Sister (2016) • Review
"Little Sister" is about many things: family relationships, the intersection of the personal and the political, how faith provides comfort in a chaotic world..

Autumn Sonata • Mothers, Daughters, and Monsters
Autumn Sonata was Ingrid Bergman’s swan song in theatrical movies; when she filmed it, she already had the cancer that would kill her..

"Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words"
A captivating look behind the scenes of the remarkable life of a young Swedish girl who became one of the most celebrated actresses of..

Jafar Panahi • A complete retrospective
As part of the Paris Autumn Festival, the Pompidou Centre is presenting a complete retrospective of Panahi's films, and showing his photographic work..

The War Show • at London Film Festival
'The world becomes increasingly numbed, which is why a documentary like 'The War Show' is so essential.' Venice Days winner is part of the Danish line-up at..

'Kill the Messenger' • Review
A reporter becomes the target of a vicious smear campaign that drives him to the point of suicide after he exposes the CIA’s role in arming Contra rebels..

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo • Review
The powerful businessman Henrik Vanger invites Mikael to an investigation work. He gets surprised when realizes that the service has nothing to do with..

'The Childhood of a Leader' • Review
A personal, poetic look back at a century where history, cinema, psychology and politics intersected in ways that we are still trying to parse..

The Professor and the Madman
'A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary.' Apocalypto co-scribe Farhad Safinia is to make his feature directorial debut with..

'The Immigrant' • Review
Beautiful visuals, James Gray's confident direction, and a powerful performance from Marion Cotillard combine to make The Immigrant a richly rewarding period drama..

From Iran, a Separation
A documentary exploring how the ordinary people of Iran felt about an Iranian movie winning the 2012 Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film..

'Slow West' • Review
“I knew we couldn’t just keep making short films, it was almost unspoken that it was going to lead to a feature. I’ve got so much admiration for the Coens, how they handle tone, their ability to..

Still Life (2013)
The British drama “Still Life” by writer-director Uberto Pasolini is pretty much an exact cinematic equivalent of Paul McCartney’s downcast lament. It begins with three funerals, of different faiths..

'Land of Mine'
is Denmark's Oscar entry
The Danish selection committee unanimously picked Zandvliet's feature over the other two shortlist candidates: Thomas Vinterberg's The Commune and..

Farhadi's 'The Salesman'
nominated for 2017 Oscar
Iran has nominated a film by the country’s Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi for the next Academy Awards. Farhadi's drama has been chosen by..

Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
The story of Florence Foster Jenkins, a New York heiress, who dreamed of becoming an opera singer, despite having a terrible singing voice..

Remembering
Abbas Kiarostami
The world of cinema lost a giant this year. To celebrate his esteem career, Iranian Film Festival will present one of his rare films made outside of Iran..

A Perfect Day (2016)
War's cruel absurdity
“A Perfect Day,” directed by Fernando de León de Aronoa, making his English-language feature debut, is set “Somewhere In The Balkans” and..

THRIVE (2011)
Is free energy possible?
THRIVE is an unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what's really going on in our world by following the money upstream..

Requiem for the American Dream (2016)
The definitive discourse with Noam Chomsky, widely regarded as the most important intellectual alive, on the defining characteristic of our time..

Night Shift (2015)
Filmmaker and actress Niki Karimi turns to a social drama about a middle-class couple in trouble. Caught up in a downward economic spiral, which they disguise from each other..

Court (2015)
Winner of top prizes at the Venice and Mumbai film festivals, Chaitanya Tamhane's Court is a quietly devastating, absurdist portrait of injustice, caste prejudice, and venal politics in..

Mountain (2015)
The enormous Jewish cemetery overlooking Jerusalem takes centre stage in this quiet, slowly unfolding family drama where a woman questions her isolated existence..

Taxi Tehran (2015)
Review by Naomi Keenan O’Shea
This review is the 2016 winner of the annual Pete Walsh Critical Writing Award. Jafar Panahi’s most recent cinematic..

Abbas Kiarostami dies aged 76
Celebrated Iranian director, whose Taste of Cherry won Cannes’ top prize in 1997, remained in the country after the Islamic revolution and continued to flourish..

'DAUGHTER' (2016)
wins top prize at MIFF
Reza Mirkarimi’s ‘Daughter’ represented Iranian cinema at the 38th Moscow International Film Festival, and became the critics’ favorite, scoring 7.3 out of..

Escobar: Paradise Lost
Benicio del Toro has fun playing the world’s deadliest slob, but there’s too much fabrication in this not-quite biopic. In Colombia, an American surfer meets the woman of his dreams - and then..

'I am Nasser Hejazi'
The legendary goalkeeper
The documentary looks at the life of the legendary Iranian Goalkeeper, Nasser Hejazi, in five chapters narrated by Shahab Hosseini, Bahram Radan..

'Life Itself' (2014)
Life Itself recounts the surprising and entertaining life of renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert. Critics review films, sometimes they even appear in films, but..

The Wave (2016)
Movie review
Well-acted and blessed with a refreshingly humanistic focus, The Wave is a disaster film that makes uncommonly smart use of disaster film clichés..

Rams (Hrútar) (2016)
The film morphs from gentle near-absurdist comedy to something close to tragedy in Rams, a simply but skillfully told tale of the hardships of isolated rural life in Iceland..

Iran's ‘Sound and Fury’
Goes to 19th Shanghai filmfest
‘Sound and Fury’ by Houman Seyedi is among the competing titles in the main competition section of the 19th edition..

Massy Tadjedin’s Last Night
Massy Tadjedin’s feature directorial debut Last Night is a stunning tale of fidelity and marital trust. Tadjedin seduces both her characters and..

Özcan Alper's Future Lasts Forever
A woman struggles with love and personal loss against the backdrop of a land torn by civil war in this drama from filmmaker Ozcan Alper..

SALAM NEIGHBOR (2015)
Two filmmakers fully embed themselves in a Syrian refugee camp, providing an intimate look at the world's most dire humanitarian crisis. SALAM NEIGHBOR gives a name and a face to the Syrian..

Ken Loach's 'I, Daniel Blake' Takes Palme D'Or
The Palme d’Or went to Ken Loach’s well-regarded I, Daniel Blake, a social drama about an ailing carpenter’s struggle against the bureaucracy of..

Iranian star Shahab Hosseini wins best actor award at Cannes
The Best Actor prize has been awarded to Shahab Hosseini by Kirsten Dunst and Katayoon Shahabi, for his role in..

‘The Salesman’ Signals a Cinematic Resurgence in Iran
Why Asghar Farhadi’s ‘The Salesman’ Signals a Post Nuclear Deal Cinematic Resurgence in Iran? It stood out as..

Behzadi's ‘Inversion’
Cannes Film Review
Behnam Behzadi's new film is a quietly dramatic tale of a woman in Tehran who is not as liberated as she thinks she is. This isn’t Los Angeles, it’s Tehran..

Refn's The Neon Demon
Cannes 2016
“Beauty isn’t everything… it’s the only thing.” Refn’s latest and best, The Neon Demon, is the culmination of his decades-long fascination with human..

Jim Jarmusch's "Paterson"
Cannes 2016
Jim Jarmusch’s new movie is a quiet delight: the story of a gentle, artistic man and his wife which celebrates small-town life and dreams without..

Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann
Cannes review
You don’t often hear the furrowed crowd at Cannes applaud during a picture. They did more at Maren Ade’s singular Tony Erdmann. They did a bit of whooping..

Jeff Nichols' 'Loving'
Exploring American history
Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, are sentenced to prison in Virginia in 1958 for getting married. The story behind the historic Civil Rights..

Peshmerga
The Festival de Cannes has decided to add another film as a Special Screening: Peshmerga by Bernard-Henri Lévy. 'This film, which we have just discovered, offers a close-up look at the Kurdish..'

Gett, the Trial of Viviane Amsalem (2015)
This expertly written, brilliantly acted film documents the painful five-year process for one woman attempting to obtain a divorce..

Joachim Trier’s Louder than bombs
The Quest for Authenticity in Post-Existential Age. In his new film Louder than bombs Norwegian director Joachim Trier masterfully captures..

The Salesman (2016)
Asghar Farhadi's seventh feature joins the Cannes competition. Asghar Farhadi is in the running for the Palme d'Or; David Mackenzie is in Un Certain Regard; Richet has a midnight screening..

Samsara (2012)
The Strangeness and Wonder of our Planet
Filmed over nearly five years in twenty-five countries on five continents, "Samsara" transports us to the varied..

T Boy (2014)
Short Film from Qatar
A young Indian IT professional who has moved to Doha on the promise of lucrative employment, ends up in a job making tea for the employees of an..

Wit (2001)
When a movie hurts too much
The experience with "Wit" was a revelation. Yes, movies can be immediate and real to us.. The teleplay by Nichols and Emma Thompson is based on..

Olof Palme:
Loved and Hated
Thirty years after he was shot to death on the streets of Stockholm, Olof Palme is still making headlines in Sweden today...

'Fire At Sea' winner of Golden Bear for Best Film
The European migrant crisis has found its cinematic Pietà in Fire At Sea, Italian director Gianfranco Rosi’s powerful, at times shocking but also intensely human..

’24 Weeks’
Berlin Film Review
The second feature from Anne Zohra Berrached addresses one of the most difficult decisions that a woman may have to make in her life..

“Life+1 Day” leads nominations at Iran's Fajr festival
Saeid Rustai’s poverty and drug movie “Life+1 Day” received nine nominations in various categories including best film..

“Lanturi” warns of rise of intolerance
A distinguished director from the new generation of Iranian cinema, Reza Dormishian, warns of the rise of intolerance in society..

'Sonita' & 'The Birth of a Nation’ among big winners at Sundance awards
Park City • The World Cinema Documentary competition yielded another double winner: "Sonita," the story of..

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet
One of the more pleasant surprises of TIFF 2014, the film adapts the poetry of Lebanese artist, poet, and writer Kahlil Gibran in a series of vignettes similar to Disney’s Fantasia..

Ettore Scola dies at 84
The film director Ettore Scola, a leading figure in Italian cinema for more than three decades, has died at the age of 84.. ‘leaves a huge void in Italian culture’

Oscars So White?
Or Oscars So Dumb?
The outcry over the nomination of 20 white actors, and no black ones, for the coming Academy Awards gained momentum on Monday..

‘A War’ (2015)
Venice Film Review
Tobias Lindholm's engrossing, impeccably sensitive Afghanistan War drama makes good on the promise of 'A Hijacking.'..

The Danish Girl (2015)
a beautiful and moving biopic
The Danish Girl serves as another showcase for Eddie Redmayne's talent -- and poignantly explores thought-provoking themes with a beautifully..

'45 Years' (2015)
A Moving Marital Drama
Make no mistake. “45 Years” is no polite tea-and-toast domestic drama, even if the central characters onscreen are a childless retired couple..

Queen of Earth (2015)
Down the road of depression
We feel something bad is going to happen. Will Catherine kill herself? Kill someone else? Her world has shattered and every way in which she defines..

“TOWER TO THE PEOPLE”
Tesla's Dream at Wardenclyffe Continues
A century ago, Nikola Tesla dreamed of sending free wireless energy from a mysterious tower and lab called..

Sicario (2015)
Film Review
There are in fact, no good guys in “Sicario,” only men compromised on a sliding scale of grey by the international drug trade..

“Bitter Dream”
screened after a 12-year ban
Last week, the movie received the cultural officials approval for premiering at the Art and Experience Cinemas in Iran, the movie theaters that are..

The Pope's Toilet
Humble Hope in Hard Times
An offbeat charmer, The Pope's Toilet is a humorous, well-crafted tale with plenty of heart and a poignant social message. Inspired by the visit of Pope John Paul..

Under Electric Clouds
The film explores a motif familiar to German Jr film buffs: the tension between freedom and its absence which lies at the centre of life among Russia’s intelligentsia..

Words with Gods
Sometimes Look Up
“Words with Gods” are short cinematic meditations on faith and consciousness masterminded by writer-director Guillermo Arriaga. The full omnibus will..

WEDNESDAY, MAY 9
Iran’s only representative at the 72nd Venice Film Festival, ‘Wednesday, May 9’ by Vahid Jalilvand will compete in the Horizon section of the event. Beginning September 2, the festival offers 55 new..

Hotspots:
Hong Kong’s New Wave
Relishing Wong Kar-wai’s first masterpiece, DAYS OF BEING WILD. Hong Kong was the Hollywood of East Asia through the sixties and seventies..

Understanding Asghar Farhadi
An Iranian Canadian critic engages with Farhadi’s films and her own roots. Asghar Farhadi: Life and Cinema is the first English book about the great director..

IFF - San Francisco 2015
Welcome to the 8th Annual Iranian Film Festival in San Francisco, the first independent Iranian film festival outside of Iran. This year, once again, IFF will present the best Iranian films..

Grant Gee's INNOCENCE OF MEMORIES
Turkish touch in Venice film fest. Orhan Pamuk has created what may be the single most powerfully beautiful, humane and affecting work of contemporary art..

Abluka (Frenzy)
Award-winning Turkish film director Emin Alper’s latest movie will contest this year’s Venice International Film Festival, organizers announced Wednesday. It centers on the story of two brothers..

Inequality for All
In this timely and entertaining documentary, noted economic-policy expert Robert Reich distills the topic of widening income inequality, and addresses the question of what effects..

Where to Invade Next
“The issue of the United States at infinite war is something that has concerned me for quite some time, and provides the necessary satire for this film, said Moore..

Listen Up Philip
if this distinctively funny and disconcerting new film by Alex Ross Perry, is your first exposure to his work, one question you might have on exiting is “What kind of person makes a movie..”

The Matador
"I facilitate fatalities"
Richard Shepard balances the macabre and the sentimental, and understands that although his film contains questions like "don't successful people always...

Detained 50+ times
Why was Laura Poitras Oscar-winning Snowden documentarian detained 50+ times in US airports? Laura Poitras has filed suit to find out why she was stopped and searched...

Orson Welles:
The Great Disruptor
Orson Welles’ passion for innovation spurred both his meteoric rise and his fall from grace. A century after his birth, Orson Welles’ position as a titan of...

Actors pay tribute to Omar Sharif
ANTONIO Banderas, Barbra Streisand and filmmaker Roland Emmerich are leading the tributes to acting icon Omar Sharif, who has died aged 83...

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
A film that blends conventional elements into something brilliantly original -- and serves as a striking calling card for writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour...

My Sweet Orange Tree (2012)
The film follows the story of Zezé, a little and very imaginative and sensitive but misunderstood boy. He lives in a very humble house with an unemployed and...

The Film of Disquiet (2010)
A restless film based in fragments of The Book of Disquiet, by Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa. Lisbon today. In a room of a house at Douradores Street, a man invents dreams and...

Wild Tales (2015)
Inequality, injustice and the demands of the world we live in cause stress and depression for many people. Some of them, however, explode. This is a movie about those people...

The Man Who Saved The World (2014)
The man who saved the world and who, in his own words, is not a hero, lives in a small apartment full of empty vodka bottles, has lost his family and is...

Amour fou (2015)
Amour Fou is inspired by the life and death of the poet Heinrich von Kleist and his partner in death, Henriette Vogel. Berlin, 1810: Heinrich von Kleist, a despondent young poet/dramatist...

The Age of Adaline (2015)
Not many movies go from "eh" to "wow." "The Age of Adaline" is one of them. The story of a woman who miraculously survives a car wreck and emerges as an ageless being...

Miss Julie (2014)
Liv Ullmann's adaptation of the classic Strindberg play “Miss Julie” tells the story clearer than any words could do. Over the course of a midsummer night in Fermanagh in 1890, an unsettled...

The Palme d’Or for Jacques Audiard and The Grand Prix for Son of Saul
The 68th edition of the Cannes Film Festival drew to a close tonight by unveiling its awards list, which...

‘Nahid’ • Cannes Film Review
Temporary marriage, Iranian-style, takes center stage in director Ida Panahandeh's sensitive, well-acted and reasonably absorbing...

A Palme d’honneur to
Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda is to receive an honorary Palme d’or during the Closing Ceremony of the 68th Festival de Cannes. Previously, only Woody Allen, in 2002,..

Matteo Garrone's
Tale of Tales (2015)
Selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, 'The Tale of Tales' is an upcoming English-language film, starring Salma Hayek,..

Shame (2011)
Brandon is compelled to repeat the same behavior over and over, he never reveals emotion. He lives like a man compelled to follow an inevitable course and all he gets from it is self-loathing...

Cannes Classics 2015
Costa-Gavras as guest of honor, a double celebration of Ingrid Bergman and Orson Welles, Ousmane Sembène the « father of African cinema, » Gaumont with a place of honor, Argentinians...

Thomas Vinterberg's
'Far From the Madding Crowd'
Nicely served on both sides of the camera, this is a concise and involving rendition of a resilient young woman who comes into property in Victorian ...

Lars von Trier • Interview
‘I’ve started drinking again, so I can work’. Lucy Cheung met von Trier at the Zentropa studio in Denmark to talk about sex, alcoholism and his reaction to the Copenhagen shootings...

Martin Scorsese Presents:
Masterpieces of Polish Cinema
Martin Scorsese has recently overseen a project restoring some of Poland's greatest films to their former glory..

Tracks (2014) • Review
A truly outstanding cinema experience
Mia Wasikowska stars in the astonishing true story of Robyn Davidson, who in 1977 set out on a solo 2,700-kilometre...

The Turin Horse • Review
Bela Tarr’s Final Film
Béla Tarr’s final film, provides a fictionalized account of what happened to the horse Friedrich Nietzsche tried to protect from a whipping..

A Most Violent Year (2014)
"What Good is The American Dream If You Can't Sleep At Night Because Of The Things You Did To Achieve It." The film's title refers to an actual, statistical designation: 1981 was the most ...

13 Assassins • Review
A Last Hurrah for the Samurai Code
"13 Assassins" has what many action pictures need, a villain who transcends evil and ascends to a realm of barbaric..

A Tale of Samurai Cooking (2013)
Short-order shogun trains her husband, a young man from a renowned family of samurai chefs, to be a kitchen Kurosawa in this tasty Japanese drama...

Mr. Turner • Review
The interconnectedness of all things
Led by a masterful performance from Timothy Spall and brilliantly directed by Mike Leigh, Mr. Turner is a superior..

Away from Her: The Mercy of Simple Truth
An accomplished directorial debut by Sarah Polley, Away From Her is a touching exploration of the effects of Alzheimer's, in which the tender...

Portugal bids farewell to Manoel de Oliveira
The oldest active filmmaker in the world, Manoel de Oliveira, passed away this week at the age of 106. Besides being the most internationally acclaimed..

Borgen: The Complete Series
Danish television, however is in a Golden Age of genre thrillers like "The Killing", "The Bridge" and "Those Who Kill". Scandinavian films have never been...

MOMMY • XAVIER DOLAN's fifth feature
Dolan's energy and attack is thrilling; his movie is often brilliant and very funny in ways which smash through the barriers marked Incorrect and Inappropriate..

Atlan • winner of iranian Cinema Vérité 1st prize
The story follows a season in the life of a young horse riding instructor and his relationship with his horse. It is a rich and honest portrayal of the harsh life of..

68th Festival de Cannes
poster time
It's poster time at the Festival de Cannes! The 68th Festival de Cannes (13-24 May 2015) has chosen to pay tribute to Ingrid Bergman...

My Old Lady • review
An American inherits an apartment in Paris that comes with an unexpected resident. The movie begins with Kline’s character, coming into Paris full of hope and excitement: his late father, while..

The Imitation Game (2014)
“Sometimes, it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one imagines.” On one hand, this is a tense World War II thriller about a stellar team of Brits who cracked Nazi...

The Theory of Everything
Movie review
A look at the relationship between the famous physicist Stephen Hawking and his wife. Together, they defy impossible odds, breaking new ground in medicine..

Film Review • A Few Cubic Meters of Love
Afghanistan's foreign-language Oscar entry is an earnest but affecting social-issue drama. Set in a shantytown on the outskirts of Tehran where a..

Aferim!
A tale of Gypsy slavery in 19th-century Romania
Radu Jude’s third feature explores the social inequalities of those times, but also the relationship we have with the past...

Jafar Panahi's 'Taxi' • wins Golden Bear at Berlinale
The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival has drawn to a close with Darren Aronofsky's jury settling on awards for films in competition. Jafar Panahi's "Taxi"

Crazy Face
wins 5 awards at Fajr Film Festival
Tehran, Iran: Last night at the award ceremony of Fajr Film Fesstival, Crazy Face (Rokhe Divaneh) won 5 awards...

Map to the Stars • The Dark Heart of Hollywood
The Weiss family is the archetypical Hollywood dynasty: father Stafford is an analyst and coach, who has made a fortune with his self-help manuals...

Berlin Review:
Jafar Panahi's Enjoyable Act Of Dissidence 'Taxi'
Iranian director Jafar Panahi has turned himself into a taxi driver to produce a vibrant portrait of the Iranian capital...

8th Annual Iranian Film Festival • San Francisco
Call for entries are open for the 8th Annual Iranian Film Festival – San Francisco. Deadline to submit films: July 15, 2015. San Francisco...

A Most Wanted Man (2014)
A man trapped in bureaucracy and shackled by a government that doesn’t give him the trust or tools he needs to do his job. He is an intelligence expert in Hamburg, Germany, a place that will...

Under the Skin (2014)
Is it a pretentious gloss on a very old story about men's fear of women, and women's discomfort with their own allure? Does it contain mysteries that can only be unpacked with repeat...

Nightcrawler (2014)
"If it bleeds, it leads"
a film about a private, ruthless loner who pursues his dream his way, always, and whose path through the world is marked by the bloodstains of the people he's...

The Good Lie (2014)
I could tell the good lie and say the movie is perfect. It's not. It's often earnest to a fault and fearful of its deeper, darker implications. Still, you won't leave The Good Lie unmoved...

Boyhood (2014) • Review
Why the Unanimous Praise for 'Boyhood' Is Bad for Film Criticism — and for 'Boyhood'. "Boyhood's" near-perfect scores on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes drown out the voices ...

Big Eyes (2014)
who gets to say what is and is not art? Should popularity be equalled with bad? "Big Eyes" is full of fascinating questions about the meaning of art, the concept of popularity, and and what it means to...

STATIONS OF THE CROSS (2014)
Maria finds herself caught between two worlds. At school this 14-year-old girl has all the typical teenage interests, but when she’s at home with her family...

Birdman (2014)
Thrilling leap forward for director Alejandro González Iñárritu, Birdman is an ambitious technical showcase powered by a layered story and outstanding performances from...

Inherent Vice (2014)
The phrase "Inherent Vice" refers to "the tendency in physical objects to deteriorate because of the fundamental instability of the components of which they are made...

The Fault in Our Stars • Review
"Pain demands to be felt. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities." It should be agonizing, this tale of doomed love between cancer-stricken teens...

American Sniper • Review
Powered by Clint Eastwood's sure-handed direction and a gripping central performance from Bradley Cooper, American Sniper delivers a tense, vivid tribute to its real-life subject...

Berlinale 2015 Lineup
New films by Jafar Panahi, Werner Herzog and more added to the Competition. Last month, the Berlinale announced the first seven titles lined up for the Competition...

Slavoj Žižek on the Charlie Hebdo massacre
Are the worst really full of passionate intensity? “The best” are no longer able fully to engage, while “the worst” engage in racist, religious, sexist fanaticism...

Force Majeure (Turist)
Ruben Ostlund dissects a family's behaviour following an act of paternal cowardice in an intelligent film with a human side, unveiled in Un Certain Regard...

Gestures • Nuri Bilge Ceylan
More than any other filmmaker today, Nuri Bilge Ceylan seems closer to taking the medium to another level — to something that is literary as well as...

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan (2014)
Since the story conveys a sense of pervasive political corruption, it has been read as a daring and scathing critique of conditions in Vladimir Putin’s Russia...

'Labor Day' (2013) • Review
It's hard to be a teenager and the man in the house at the same time. The last weekend of summer vacation is going to change the 13-year-old Henry Wheeler's life...

Ida (2013) • Big winner at European Film Awards
Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida was the big winner at this year’s European Film Awards in Riga, picking up five awards, including the top honour of ...

Still Alice (2014) • Review
With a combination of power and grace, Julianne Moore elevates “Still Alice” above its made-for-cable-television trappings, and delivers one of the more memorable performances of her career...

Two Days, One Night • Dardenne Brothers
Sandra, a young Belgian mother, discovers that her workmates have opted for a significant pay bonus, in exchange for her dismissal. She has...

The Possibilities Are Endless (2014) • Review
There’s a disjointed beauty in this visualisation of a man struggling to recollect the facts of his life; a lot of power in the fight to rebuild the link between...

LABOUR OF LOVE (2014) • Aditya Vikram's first feature
Set in the crumbling environs of Calcutta, Labour of Love is a lyrical unfolding of two ordinary lives suspended in the duress of a spiralling recession...

Melbourne (2014)
wins Best Film at Cairo IFF
Iranian film 'Melbourne' wins Best Film at 36th Cairo International Film Festival. Closing ceremony at Giza plateau announces awards...

Masterclass: Joshua Oppenheimer • Interview
Two films, which have put a before and after in modern documentary filmmaking. DOX: TV has talked with director Joshua Oppenheimer - the winner of this year's...

Movie Review
Citizenfour (2014)
Though superlatives can mischaracterize any movie’s qualities, it is not an overstatement, I think, to call “Citizenfour,” the movie of the century...

‘Silent Heart’
San Sebastian Review
Masterfully crafted family drama which tackles its tricky theme with a surfeit of restrained good taste. Bille August’s powerful, nuanced issues item explores...

We are Journalists
Danish documentary from 2014
On 27 December 2009, Ahmad Farahani, an exiled Iranian filmmaker and journalist, sees an innocent man being killed on the street, but neither Ahmad or his...

Film Review:
‘Silent Heart’ by Bille August
Three generations of a family gather over a weekend. The sisters Sanne and Heidi have accepted their terminally-ill mother's desire to die before her disease...

From Denmark to Afghanistan:
Afghan writer-director Shahrbanoo Sadat is raising money for a portrait of the village where she grew up – “where children must work all day, but still have a childhood...

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS • DON SIEGEL
Still an effectively scary film, this is a welcome reissue for Hallowe'en. One of the most evergreen of science-fiction films...

Busan IFF
‘End of Winter’ and ’13’ Share Top Awards
Top prizes at the Busan International Film Festival were shared between Iranian Hooman Seyedi’s “13” and Korean...

Fish & Cat
Busan International Film Festival
Shot in a single take, the spooky and beautiful Fish & Cat is one of the most original films at this year’s festival...

Film of the week: Gone Girl
Dark, intelligent, and stylish. The movie is sick joke, a fable and a lament. It's "He done her wrong" and "She done him wrong." It's "Men are spineless pigs" and "Hell hath no fury like a woman...

The Green Prince
N. Schirman • Interview
Set against the chaotic backdrop of recent events in the Middle East, Nadav Schirman's documentary retraces the details of a highly unprecedented...

Film Review: ‘Timbuktu’
The Nightmarish Perversion of "Justice"
Timbuktu is silent, the doors closed, the streets empty. No more music, no tea, no cigarettes, no bright colors, no laughs...

Boyhood • One of the great films of the decade
Richard Linklater's beautiful time-lapse study of a boy from age five to 18 is a Bildungsroman for modern American cinema. Like the fabled Jesuit,..

Macondo (2014)
Abu Dhabi Film Fest 2014
I discovered Macondo by accident. I had heard there was a settlement on the outskirts of Vienna that had been housing refugees since the 1950s...

Abu Dhabi Film Festival
to Host the Film Foundation
ADFF has announced a collaboration with Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation/ World Cinema Project (WCP). As part of the collaboration, two newly restored...

Short Film "Room 8"
BAFTA winner 2014
Room 8 went on to gain much critical acclaim worldwide and won the Best Live Action Short Film at the 2014 BAFTAs. In 2013, Geoffrey Fletcher directed a...

Review
The Forgiveness of Blood
Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival, the powerful second feature from Joshua Marston (MARIA FULL OF GRACE)...

Today (Emrouz) (2014)
By award-winning director
Today is a profound testament to the enduring power of empathy and fellow feeling in an increasingly cruel and prejudicial world...

Iran Selects ‘Today’
for Foreign Language Oscar
Iran has returned to the foreign-language Academy Award race with the selection of Reza Mirkarimi’s “Today” (Emrooz) as its contender...

Barbarians:
A look at modern Serbia's youth
A depiction of Serbian youth brought up in a time of economic and moral demise. Told through the character of Luka, a small town football hooligan...

HORSES OF GOD
The Making of a Martyr
What makes their journey so compelling, and this portrait so eye-opening, is that these young men are not politically motivated until they are recruited...

The Riahi Brothers'
Everyday Rebellion
Everyday Rebellion is a cinema documentary and cross-media project about the power of creative, nonviolent activism and modern civil disobedience...

AI WEIWEI - THE FAKE CASE
Returning from 81 days of solitary detention and under house arrest, China’s most celebrated and provocative artist suffers from a sleeping disorder and memory loss...

The Golden Lion goes to Roy Andersson
the Golden Lion for Best Film went to Swedish director Roy Andersson for A Pigeon Sat on A Branch Reflecting on Existence, the film with the longest title...

Movie review
The Words (2012)
Almost every word Ernest Hemingway wrote in the years immediately before 1922 was lost by his first wife Hadley, who packed the pages in a briefcase...

Red Rose (2014)
Tehran. June 13th 2009
A politically complacent middle-aged man and a young pro-democracy activist debate about the future of their country while hiding from...

Rosewater:
Everything we know so far
Rosewater, the much anticipated directorial debut from Jon Stewart which stars Gael García Bernal, premieres at the Telluride Film Festival...

Black Souls (2014)
Portrait of a criminal family
"The mafia is the only working organization in Calabria", an artist with cynical sharpness once said, while a multitude of anthropologists told us...

Venice Days 2014
The Cut: The Armenian Genocide
The latest film by Fatih Akin is in competition at the Venice Film Festival and tells the story of the epic quest of a...

Venice Days 2014
The President
is the story of a dictator of an imaginary country in the Caucasus, who is forced to escape following a coup d’état, and begins a journey to discover...

Venice Days 2014
Indonesia massacre & Iran sanctions impact
Films about a 1960s massacre in Indonesia and the harsh conditions in Iran under present-day international sanctions and...

Venice Days 2014
Bani-Etemad's Tales
Entering the race for the prestigious Golden Lion prize at this year's 71st Venice Film Festival, Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad's Tales (Ghesse-ha, 2014)...

Venice Days 2014
The Look of Silence
The 71st edition of the Venice Film Festival has welcomed the new documentary by Joshua Oppenheimer, the director of 2012’s The Act of Killing...

Lauren Bacall
smoky-voiced Hollywood legend
James Agee called her “the toughest girl a piously regenerate Hollywood has dreamed of in a long, long while”...

Robin Williams
a big heart and a staggering talent
The news of the death of this mercurial performer has come as a shock - but his brilliance was always tinged with ...

On My Way
Catherine Deneuve hits the road
The film is replete with tributes not only to Truffaut, Techine and other directors Deneuve has acted for earlier in her...

Review:
Tony Takitani (2006)
Based on a Haruki Murakami short story, Tony Takitani is a dreamlike and evocative meditation on loneliness. Left to bring himself up by his touring musician father...

Gaza besieged:
tunnels, smuggling and the Israeli blockade
Photographer Bruno Stevens on life for the Palestinians of Gaza living under the Israeli blockage, and the extensive...

Children of Syria
BBC Documentary
With access across the Syrian conflict's frontlines, Lyse Doucet follows the lives of six children over six months and offers insight into a country being torn apart...

Dancing Arabs (2014)
Eyad,a boy from an Arab village has the opportunity to attend a prestigious boarding school in Jerusalem. Eyad tries hard to fit in with the Jewish-Israeli culture of the late 1980s. He develops a close...

James Garner
Rockford Files star, dies aged 86
James Garner, for more than 50 years one of Hollywood's most likable leading men on the big screen and on TV,...

Shadow People • Interview
Shadow People tells the story of people who are on the margins of our society, people who are in the shadows that you cannot see! I wanted to shed light on these people...

Pulp Farsi (2013)
The Bizarre Reality of a Nation
If there was one country, where the word dichotomy had to be used, it would be Iran. Paradoxically religion is everywhere

Kim Ki-Duk film to open Venice Days
Now on his twentieth film South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk has chosen Venice Days for the international debut of his latest effort, “One on One”...

Mood Indigo (2014)
The sets of “Mood Indigo” are breathtaking, one is overwhelmed with images, ideas, words and a fear of blinking lest we miss a single visual spark of this colored visual poem...

7th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco
Save the Dates for the 7th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco, a showcase for the independent feature and short films made by or about Iranians from...

Her (2013)
Eternal Love to an Unseen Soul Mate
A lonely writer develops an unlikely relationship with his newly-purchased operating system that’s designed to...

In Order of Disappearance
A rip-roaring revenge tale
“To be able to laugh about morbid things, the absurd moments in life, can be liberating”. A father becomes a killer on a quest to find the truth behind his son's....

The Terminal (2004)
Viktor Navorski is a visitor to New York from Eastern Europe. His homeland erupts in a fiery coup, while he is in the air en route to America. Stranded at Kennedy Airport with a passport from nowhere...

Blue Jasmine
Perhaps Woody Allen's Cruelest-Ever Film
Anxiety, nightmares and a nervous breakdown, there's only so many traumas a person can withstand until they take...

When Animals Dream
the wolf and the lamb
An initiation story on the transformation of a normal girl who discovers she is a werewolf as she transitions from adolescence into adulthood...

Niki Karimi and Amos Gitai
to Chair Edinburgh juries
Iranian actress and filmmaker Niki Karimi will head the panel of jury for the Best International Feature Film Competition in the upcoming Edinburgh International...

Gilles Jacob
Cannes Honored President
"We need the stars to help the little countries. The big names bring the attention that helps art-house cinema," Mr. Jacob says...

Awards Winners
CANNES 2014
The Palme d’or was awarded to Nuri Bilge Ceylan for Winter Sleep. It was presented to him by the American actress Uma Thurman and Quentin Tarantino...

Leila Hatami
CANNES INTERVIEW
Discovered in Asghar Farhadi's film A Separation in 2011, Leila Hatami is one of the nine members of the Jury for this edition of the Festival de Cannes...

Abbas Kiarostami
CANNES INTERVIEW
Poet, painter, photographer... At the age of 73, Abbas Kiarostami is a director whose talent is not only expressed on screen, although it is through his films...

Ken Loach's Jimmy’s Hall
Cannes 2014
A provocative portrait of Ireland in the thirties. Ken Loach turns once again to the portrayal of a powerful and uncompro- mising character. Perhaps one of...

CANNES CLASSICS
ََA Legendary Marriage
The stupendous Italian actress, Sophia Loren, is the guest of honour at the Festival de Cannes, which has scheduled the screening of a restored version of...

SPECIAL SCREENING • Cannes 2014
This year, Cannes welcomes Mexican actor Gael García Bernal in two capacities. He will sit on the Feature Film Jury and he will also be on screen, in The Ardor...

The Physician
Philipp Stoelzl's epic film
The adaptation of Noah Gordon's best selling book about a British boy who travels to the medieval East to learn about medicine. The look and feel of the film...

WINTER SLEEP
Our favorite at Cannes
“Winter sleep” is the story of a retired actor-turned-hotelier Aydin who runs a B&B in Anatolia with his sister and his wife, and coming to terms with the fact that...

Marriage Italian Style
Cannes Classics 2014
Marcello Mastroianni co-stars as the irrepressibly carnal businessman Domenico, who discovers Loren's Filumena as a young prostitute and keeps her as...

Tatiana Samoilova
Dies at 80
Soviet Film Star Tatiana Samoilova Dies at 80. The actress best known for her performances in Anna Karenina (1967).., was celebrating her 80th birthday...

My Sweet Pepperland
Make laugh, not war
Director Hiner Saleem’s most successful attempt to depict the new Kurdistan with humor and imagination. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard...

Istanbul Film Festival
Turkish Delights?
There’s so much more to the Istanbul Film Festival than its line-up or curation. “That’s where the protests took place. I was wounded by three plastic bullets ...

Iranian Film Festival
San Francisco
2014 Call for Entries is Open now! San Francisco – Iranian Film Festival, a showcase for the independent feature and short films made by or about Iranians...

ILO ILO (2013)
Winner of the Camera d’Or for best debut feature at Cannes 2013, Anthony Chen’s film is set in Singapore, 1997, during a financial crisis in Asia which saw both unemployment and suicide rates rise...

RUN & JUMP (2013)
Steph Green’s debut has been lauded on the international festival circuit, and was celebrated as the Best Irish Feature at the Galway Film Fleadh last year. An American doctor travels to Ireland to study the...

In Bloom (2013)
Tbilisi, 1992: the Soviet Union has collapsed and the newly independent Georgian state is in turmoil, with food shortages, desperate poverty, rumours of war and vigilantes on the streets...

Audrey Hepburn
As actress and woman
Hepburn as actress and woman seemed an emissary from a finer world than ours. While she is still remembered as a film actor, she also remains a symbol of both...

Sundance Institute
Short Film Challenge
Celebrate progress in the fight against global poverty with storytellers from around the world. Over the last 20 years, global poverty has been cut in half...

The Jury
The 67th Festival de Cannes
The New Zealand director, Jane Campion, winner of the Palme d’or for The Piano, will be the President of the Jury of the 67th Festival de Cannes...

REGARDING SUSAN SONTAG
an intimate study of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century. Endlessly curious and gracefully outspoken throughout her career, Susan Sontag became one of...

Cannes 2014
Official Competition Lineup
Cannes has announced the lineup for the Official Competition and Un Certain Regard section, as well as special screenings, for the 67th edition of the festival...

The Serious Game
Pernilla August and Lone Scherfig team up for a new take on The Serious Game. They have joined forces for the third screen adaption of Swedish author Hjalmar Söderberg’s 1912 novel...

Grace of Monaco (2014)
to open the 67th Festival de Cannes
French director Olivier Dahan’s Grace of Monaco is to open the next Festival de Cannes. The world preview will take...

Half of a Yellow Sun (2013)
Based on the Orange prize-winning novel of the same name, Bandele’s adaptation insightfully portrays the Nigerian civil war by exploring its abiding impact on his characters’ lives...

The Lunchbox (2013)
Middle class housewife Ila is trying once again to add some spice to her marriage, this time through her cooking. She desperately hopes that this new recipe will finally arouse some kind of reaction...

Fribourg special focus on Iranian cinema
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Modest Reception - Paziraie sadeh (2012)
Directed by: Mani Haghighi
Date of birth: 1969, Tehran, Iran
Writing credits: Mani Haghighi
Music by: Vahid Moghadasi (sound)
Country: Iran
Language: Farsi
Color: Color
Runtime: 100 minutes
Released: 2012
Genre: Drama

Berlinale (Forum)

"Starts as a top-notch black comedy, and segues into something darker still and very serious, without ever missing a beat." – FilmInk

Synopsis

A man with his arm in a cast who thus resembles Napoleon and a well-dressed woman are making their way through a war-torn mountainous region in an SUV.

The boot of the car contains plastic bags filled with money to distribute to the needy people they encounter on their journey.

But are the two of them really on a charitable mission or are we watching a duplicitous game of temptation and morality?

Cast: Taraneh Alidoosti, Mani Haghighi, Saeed Changizian, Esmaeel Khalaj, Saber Abbar, Naqi Seif-Jamali, Nader Fallah, Mohammadreza Najafi, Ghorban Nadjafi

Mani Haghighi’s previous film Men at Work (Forum 2006) already took the standard social criticism to be found in Iranian cinema into the realm of the absurd.

Paziraie sadeh is a film both farcical and full of anger that continues in this Beckettian vein. Its desolate location seems to have come from another world, peopled by characters that appear either uprooted or merely passing through.

The apparent benefactors always attach sadistic conditions to their handouts, making one poor man swear on the Koran that he won’t share the money with his equally poor relatives and preventing another from burying his baby’s corpse.

But even as they humiliate their victims and play their funny games, reality turns out to be a highly adept opponent, more than capable of stifling their sardonic laughter. --Berlinale

Filmmaker Mani Haghighi (Men At Work, MIFF 07) fills the multiple roles of producer, writer, director and actor in this absurdist provocation about a rich couple distributing plastic bags of money in the Iranian provinces.

Haghighi plays Kaveh, handsome and possibly a touch mad. Taraneh Alidoosti, who also appeared with Haghighi in the revered About Elly (MIFF 09), is his partner in a seemingly duplicitous game of humiliation disguised as an act of charity. Moving cleverly from the comedic to the chilling, the film teases both the audience and its ‘victims’ from start to finish in a mission that gets increasingly bizarre and shocking.

Winner of the NETPAC prize at this year’s Berlinale.

“This original, sophisticated film reminds us once again of the continued vitality of the Iranian film industry.” – Screen Daily

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Selected filmography of Mani Haghighi

S. Mokhberi - Man Equals Man

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