The Barbican Center, one among London’s main cultural establishments, is presenting one other homage to Iranian cinema in February after final 12 months’s sold-out occasion ranked as one among its most profitable movie applications ever.
“Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave” [Cinema-ye Motafavet] is returning to the Barbican Cinema between February 4 and 26, following a sell-out season in 2025 which was “one of the crucial common within the cinema’s historical past,” in accordance with Alex Davidson, Barbican Cinema Curator.
The Iranian New Wave — or Cinema-ye Motafavet — was a grassroots motion in Iranian documentary and fiction filmmaking which started as a creative response to the speedy modernization of Iranian society within the Sixties and 70s. Produced by a small group of younger, collaborative and principally self-taught filmmakers, the movies – which had been set towards the backdrop of the Shah’s reign – mixed documentary realism with poetic allegory, and mirrored the advanced and infrequently contradictory feelings towards modernization throughout that interval.
The February pageant — a spotlight of the Barbican’s spring season – will characteristic a season of pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema as soon as once more curated by Ehsan Khoshbakt, who will introduce movies exploring themes of sexuality, identification and oppression.
“Some of the movies on this program have taken greater than half a century to be seen in the best way they had been meant to be seen – or, in some instances, to be seen in any respect,” mentioned Ehsan Khoshbakht. “The stylistic and political boldness of those movies helps clarify the place up to date Iranian administrators draw their inspiration.”
There will likely be 11 movies introduced on the pageant, together with ones which have by no means earlier than been screened within the UK.
The season will open with “Marjan” (1956) – the one surviving fragments of the primary Iranian movie directed and produced by a lady, Shahla Riahi’s, who additionally stars within the movie; and “The Ballad of Tara” [Cherike-ye Tara] by Bahram Beyzaie. This is the primary of Beyzaie’s works to be absolutely centered on a lady. The movie’s completion coincided with the Iranian Revolution, so it was banned in Iran, as its imaginative and prescient of a desired lady who was grasp of her personal destiny was not acceptable to the brand new regime. Also featured on the Barbican is Beyzaie’s brief “Journey” [Safar] (1972).
The season will shut with the world premiere of the newly restored “Secrets of the Jinn Valley Treasure” (1974), a political satire and the ultimate cinematic work directed by Ebrahim Golestan, starring Parviz Sayyad and Mary Apick. This is a re-edited model which Golestan considered as definitive and has by no means been publicly screened till now. The closing night time will likely be introduced in partnership with the Iran Heritage Foundation.
Two different earlier works by Ebrahim Golestan in collaboration with Forough Farrokhzad may even be screened throughout the season: “A Fire” [Yek Atash] (1961), edited by Farrokhzad; and “Courtship” (1961), wherein Farrokhzad makes her sole display screen look earlier than her loss of life in a automotive crash six years later.
The Barbican may even current:
“The Postman” [Postchi] (1972) by Dariush Mehrjui, collectively restored by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project and the Cineteca di Bologna;
“A Suit for Wedding” [Lebassi Baraye Aroussi] (1976) by Abbas Kiarostami;
“The Night It Rained” [An Shab ke Barun Amad] (1967) by Kamran Shirdel;
“The Carriage Driver” [Doroshkechi] (1971) by and with Nosratollah Karimi;
“Dancer of the City” [Raghase-ye Shahr] by Shapour Gharib, starring Forouzan and Nasser Malek Motie; and
“The Deer” [Gavaznha] (1974) by Masoud Kimiai, starring Behrouz Vosoughi. (This movie was banned for 2 years after premiering on the Tehran International Film Festival in 1974 and allowed again with a brand new ending. Both endings will likely be screened on the Barbican.)
The Deer 3 (c) Ehsan Khoshbakht
Secrets of the Jinn Valley Treasure (c) Cineteca di Bologna
the night time it rained (c) Kamran Shirdel
Carriage Driver(c) The Nosrat Karimi Estate
The following are biographies of filmmakers featured within the Barbican season:
Shahla Riahi (1927-2019) was an actress and movie director, born in Tehran who began stage appearing in 1944 when she was solely 17 earlier than showing in cinema for the primary time in “Golden Dreams.” In 1956, she grew to become the primary Iranian lady to direct a characteristic, with “Marjan” – a 110-minute, 35mm, black-and-white drama a couple of gypsy woman named Marjan who settles close to a village and falls in love with a faculty instructor, after her father is locked up within the faculty for having stolen their lamb.
Riahi featured in additional than 72 movies all through her profession, together with in such movies as “The Carriage Driver” [Doroshkechi] (1971); and “Beggars of Tehran” [Gedayan Tehran] (1967). She was married to the movie director and author Esmaeil Riyahi.
Ebrahim Golestan (1922-2023) was one of many main intellectuals and writers of Twentieth-century Iran and one of many pioneers of recent Iranian cinema. He established his personal Golestan Studios, which grew to become probably the most refined heart for filmmaking in Iran in 1959. A champion runner in his youth, he initially mixed filmmaking with a extremely profitable profession as a journalist (he was additionally an completed translator) and as knowledgeable photographer, capturing a few of the most lasting photographs of Iran within the Fifties, when Mohammad Mossadegh was Prime Minister.
In 1954, when a consortium of Western oil corporations took over the Iranian oil business, he was put in command of making documentaries. After severing his ties with the consortium in 1959, he negotiated the acquisition of the movie gear, and established Golestan Studios, supplying movie clips and images to the Western media.
In 1958, Golestan started an intense love affair with the feminist poet Forugh Farrokhzad – probably the most celebrated love affair in all of recent Persian literature (he was married, she was divorced). The affair lasted till her loss of life in a automotive accident in 1967. He produced her documentary “The House is Black” – now acknowledged as an necessary movie of the Iranian new wave, and one of many 9 titles being screened on the Barbican.
After her loss of life, Golestan took up exile within the West Sussex village of Bolney in Britain, left his spouse and two kids in Iran, bought his movie studio and made Britain his everlasting dwelling till his loss of life on the age of 100. His daughter Lili grew to become a translator and is the proprietor and creative director of the Golestan Gallery in Tehran. His son Kaveh grew to become a famend photojournalist, and was tragically killed by a land mine whereas on task in Iraq with the BBC in 2003.
Dariush Mehrjui (1939-2023) was a distinguished Iranian filmmaker, producer and screenwriter and a founding member of the Iranian New Wave motion. His movie, “The Cow” [Gaav] (1969) was one of many motion’s first footage.
Mehrjui graduated in philosophy from UCLA in 1964. “The Cow” [Gaav] (1969) was his second characteristic movie, a drama starring the famend Ezzatolah Entezami and tailored from a brief story by the prolific Iranian author, Gholamhossein Sa’edi, about an outdated villager’s love for his cow and his anguish after its loss of life. The movie introduced Mehrjui nationwide and worldwide recognition, profitable him the International Critics Award on the Venice Film Festival in 1971, whereas Entezami gained Best Actor on the Chicago International Film Festival.
Mehrjui’s “The Postman” [Postchi] (1970), featured on the Barbican, stars Ali Nassirian, Ezzatolah Entezami and Jaleh Sam, and gained the 1972 Interfilm award on the Berlin International Film Festival.
Mehrjui could be most acclaimed for “The Cycle” [Dayereh Mina] (1977), a movie he started directing in 1973 which might be banned for 3 years earlier than being launched in 1977. Exploring the illicit blood visitors in Iran, the movie starred Saeed Kangarani, an adolescent from a poor neighborhood within the outskirts of Tehran who had introduced his father for medical remedy and was entangled within the unlawful blood trafficking enterprise. The movie would go on to win the 1978 FIPRESCI Prize and the OCIC Award on the Berlin International Film Festival.
Mehrjui moved to Paris in 1980 the place he labored on “Journey to the Land of Rimbaud,” a documentary in regards to the French poet Arthur Rimbaud. Upon returning to Iran in 1985, he resumed his movie profession underneath the Islamic regime, directing “Hamoun” (1990) in addition to quite a few motion pictures depicting the lives of girls all through the Nineties, together with “Sara,” “Pari,” and “Leila.”
Mehrjui and his spouse, Vahideh Mohammadifar, a screenwriter and costume designer had been discovered stabbed to loss of life of their dwelling within the metropolis of Karaj, close to Tehran in 2023. The killer who was arrested and sentenced to loss of life days after the assault, was a former worker with a grudge towards Mehrjui for monetary causes.
Kamran Shirdel (1939) is an Iranian filmmaker and documentarist – the daddy determine of Iran’s NEW cinema and documentary faculty of filming, who paved the best way for documentaries that had been an correct reflection of the truth of Iranian society. Many of Iran’s famend cineastes labored immediately with him throughout their adolescence.
Shirdel studied structure, urbanism, and design on the University of Rome, and movie path on the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia within the early Sixties. During that point, he labored as an assistant on John Huston’s “The Bible,” which was then capturing on the Cinecittà studios in Rome.
Shirdel returned to Tehran in 1965 and commenced directing documentaries for the Ministry of Culture and Art. He would direct his most famed socio-political documentaries over the following three years, earlier than being expelled from the Ministry. Revealing the darker aspect of the financial growth on Iranian society, his movies spoke up for the underprivileged and had been banned for exposing and criticizing the corruption in Iran. They included: “Women’s Prison” [Nedamatgah] (1965); “The Women’s Quarter” [Qaleh] (1966); “Tehran is the Capital of Iran [Tehran Paitakhte Iran Ast] (1966); and “The Night it Rained” (1967).”
“The Night it Rained” [An Shab ke Barun Amad], undoubtedly Shirdel’s greatest documentary movie, and a masterpiece within the historical past of documentary filmmaking explores what occurred on a wet night time when a younger boy allegedly saved a prepare from crashing. The movie was banned and confiscated after completion, launched in 1974 to take part and gained the Grand Prix on the Tehran International Film Festival, solely to be banned once more till after the revolution.
Shirdel’s later works embody his first characteristic movie, “The Morning of the Fourth Day” [Sobh-e Rooz-e Chaharom] (1972); in addition to such documentary movies as “Gas, Fire, Wind” [Gaz, Atash, Baad] (1986); “Genaveh Project” [Tarh-e Genaveh] (1988); and “Tanhaee-ye avval” (2002).
Shirdel is the founder and director of the KISH International Documentary Film Festival (KIDFF), which is held yearly in January on the island of Kish within the Persian Gulf. He can also be the managing director of Filmgrafic Co. He was appointed as Il Cavaliere Della Repubblica Italiana and obtained the medals of La Stella Della Solidarietà Italiana in a ceremony held in Farmanieh Palace in Tehran in 2010.
Nosratollah Karimi (1924-2019) was an Iranian director, author, actor and the daddy of animation, stop-motion and puppet movie in Iran. Despite a prolific profession in theater and movie that spanned six many years, Karimi is primarily identified for his function as Agha Jan, within the common 1976 TV sequence, “My Uncle Napoleon” [Daei Jan Napoleon].
He started his profession as make-up artist, stage designer and actor in Tehran, earlier than finding out movie path and TV manufacturing at FAMU in Prague, specializing in puppet and animation motion pictures. Returning to Iran, he was engaged in 1965 by the Ministry of Culture and Art to run a state workshop for animated cartoons. Some of his best-known works embody “Life” [Zendegi]; “King Jamshid”[Malek Jamshid] – a fairy story from Ferdowsi’s “Shahnameh” [Book of Kings]; “Mouse Heart” [Del-e Moosh]; and “Leopard Skin” [Poost-e Palang]; “Hunting for the Moon” [Adam Shakh Dar Miyareh].
In 1972, Karimi launched puppetry as a serious at Tehran University and invited the Czech puppeteer Oscar Batek to launch this system. In 1987, he created “The Uninvited Visitor” [Mehman-e Nakhandeh] puppet play and in 1996 produced the puppet tv sequence “Unruly” [Vorujak].
Karimi later transitioned to characteristic filmmaking, directing and appearing in a few of the best examples of basic common comedies akin to “The Carriage Driver” [Doroshkechi] (1971) screened on the Barbican; “The Interim Husband” [Mohallel] (1971); “The Triple Bed” [Takhtekhab-e se nafare] (1972); and “The Ruined House” [Khane-Kharab] (1975).
Shapour Gharib (1932-2012) was a famend Iranian playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker. His debut characteristic movie, “The Daughter of the King of Fairies” [Dokhtar-e Shah-e Parian] (1968), gained him reward in Iran. His physique of labor additionally consists of: “Dancer of the City” [Raghaseye Shahr] (1970); “American Mamal” [Mamal Amricayi] (1975); “The Iconoclast” [Botshekan] (1976); “Eastern Man, Western Woman” [Mard-e Sharghi, Zan-e Farangi] (1976); and “Summer Vacation” [Se Mah Tatili] (1977).
Masoud Kimiai (1941) is a filmmaker, screenwriter and producer who by no means obtained any formal educational coaching in filmmaking. Passionate about cinema, he spent hours exterior Tehran’s film theaters listening to the movies’ sound tracks on the loudspeakers mounted exterior the cinema, attempting to visualise the motion. After frequent visits to movie studios looking for a job, he met director Samuel Khachikian, discovered the methods of filmmaking, and commenced his profession as assistant director to Khachikian. He made his debut in 1968 with “Come Stranger” and have become well-known after directing his second movie “Gheisar” (1969), which along with Mehrjui’s “The Cow,” propelled the Iranian New Wave motion.
Other characteristic movies directed by Kimiai that adopted embody: “Reza, The Motorcyclist” [Reza Motori] (1970); “Dash Akol” (1971) written with Sadegh Hedayat; “The Deer”[Gavaznha] (1974); “The Soil” [Khak] (1973); and “Snake’s Fang” [Dandan-e Mar] (1990) for which he obtained the Special Mention award on the Berlin International Film Festival in 1991.
In 2024, his newest movie, “Killing a Traitor” [Khaen-koshi] (2022) obtained six nominations and gained three awards, together with the Jury Award on the Hafez Ceremony for Kimiai himself.
He was married to the celebrity singer Googoosh between 1995 and 2003.