علی آقا
Directed by Kamran Heidari • 2017 • Iran
Seventy-year-old Ali Aqa’s large, fleshy hands shake as he helps a newborn pigeon chick hatch. His pigeons, which he keeps on the roof of his home, mean everything to him. He calls his favorite white pigeon “sweetheart” and even takes her into his bedroom. His wife is less than enthusiastic about this and has good cause to be jealous. He may be the embodiment of tenderness when dealing with his beloved pigeons, but this cantankerous old man is a trial for the human beings around him, as we soon learn from this dynamic portrait, shot up close to its protagonist. He orders his wife and son around and is consumed by paranoia. When it goes too far, even the film’s director Kamran Heidari abandons his strictly neutral position as an observer. The pigeons are Ali’s way of escaping reality—in particular, an impending hospitalization—but this proves ever more difficult. Ali Aqa’s small-scale, everyday story encompasses a great human drama: how do we accept the inevitable?
همه درختان من
Directed by Rakhshan Banietemad • 2015 • Iran
Mahlagha Mallah is Iran’s eldest environmental activist and the founder of the first environmental NGO in Iran. Spending a few days in her home and accompanying her in environmental gatherings and activities is an excuse to portray the c...
حياط خلوت خانه خورشيد
Directed by Rakhshan Banietemad • 2009 • Iran
In the backstreets of one of the poor districts of Tehran, in a very small house, everyday hundreds of women spend a few hours in the shadows of a safe shelter. Women, whose share in life is only suffering and humiliation.
اتلان
Directed by Moein Karrimoodini • 2015 • Iran
Ali’s 90-year-old grandfather always told his family, “A Turkman without a horse is not a Turkman”. Following in the family tradition, Ali trains the sturdy creatures for a grand race in a northern Iranian province. His favourite horse, Ilhan, ha...
