5 Films To Introduce You To Iranian Film Culture

Originating in Queensland, the Iranian Film Festival is the only nation-wide Australian festival dedicated to Iranian cinema.

Through the presentation of contemporary Iranian cinema, The Iranian Film Festival aims to entertain and educate audiences and introduce Australians to Iranian culture.

Here's is five films playing during the Adelaide run to introduce you to Iranian culture:

'Life And A Day' ('Abad Va Yek Rooz'): Saturday 5 November @ 7:30pm

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Somayeh is at a loss. Her only desire is to leave her family and take her destiny in hand, yet the love of her sick mother holds her back. Her elder brother introduces her to an Afghan who wants to marry her and take her to Afghanistan. Despite herself, but moved by her brother’s concern, she accepts the offer, seeing it as primarily a means of escaping her family. And then, at the very last minute, she discovers the hidden face of the marriage proposal.

'Lantouri': Sunday 6 November @ 7pm

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Reza Dormishian’s third feature film, 'Lantouri', takes the name of a street gang in Tehran that robs and kidnaps people in broad daylight. The film follows Pasha, leader of the gang, and Maryam, a journalist and social activist. As their relationship breaks up, the two test each other's ideals and ways of seeing society and its ‘victims’. This stylish social-realist drama explores the crimes committed and the frustrations of Iranian youth by way of interviews with activists, friends and hardline political commentators. Described in Variety as “stylistically inspired by Godardian jump cuts, Tom Tykwer’s 'Run Lola Run' photo montages, and Kamran Shirdel”, it is also, at once, uniquely Dormishian.

'The Brick And The Mirror' ('Khesht Va Ayeneh'): Thursday 3 November @ 7pm

A seminal film of the ‘first Iranian New Wave,’ Ebrahim Golestan’s 'The Brick And The Mirror' is essential viewing for those seeking to understand the influences of this period of film history on filmmakers as acclaimed and diverse as Kiarostami, Panahi and co. A minimalist tale of a taxi driver left with a baby in his back seat after the mother abandons the two of them, this classic branches out into a biting social commentary of Iranian society in the '60s.

'Daughter' ('Dokhtar'): Friday 4 November @ 10:45am/Sunday 6 November @ 2:30pm

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The strict and traditional Mr Azizi leads an uneventful family life in an oil town in Southern Iran.
Then one day, exasperated by her father's authoritarianism, Setareh announces she is off to Tehran to say farewell to one of her best friends who is leaving Iran for good. Unfortunately, the engagement celebrations of Setareh's younger sister are taking place simultaneously. Despite her father's objections, Setareh takes the plane for Tehran. This act of disobedience sets in motion a series of perturbations that upset the calm tranquility of the paterfamilias.

'The Salesman' ('Forushande'): Saturday 5 November @ 6:30pm

Director Asghar Farhadi returns to Tehran for his latest middle class family drama, the genre that he has re-introduced with 'About Elly' and 'A Separation'. A couple, actors by night, must move from their apartment because it is in danger of collapsing. Tehran’s real estate boom. At home one evening in the new apartment, the wife lets in a man she assumes is her husband, returning from a rehearsal of Arthur Miller’s 'Death of a Salesman' (in which they are both performing). The encounter leaves her wounded and psychologically damaged, and leads to a marriage crisis as her husband relentlessly pursues revenge.

The Iranian Film Festival hits The Mercury Cinema in Adelaide from 3-6 November.