Septembers of Shiraz

Septembers of Shiraz 2015

5.90

In this adaptation of the critically acclaimed debut novel by Iranian American author Dalia Sofer, a secular Jewish family is caught up in the maelstrom of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

2015

Desert Dancer

Desert Dancer 2014

6.90

Inspirational true story of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian, who risked his life for his dream to become a dancer despite a nationwide dancing ban.

2014

A Separation

A Separation 2011

7.90

A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.

2011

Taste of Cherry

Taste of Cherry 1997

7.70

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

1997

Offside

Offside 2006

6.90

During the 2006 World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain, numerous young women are caught and rounded up for dressing as men so they could gain access to the game. Guarded by several soldiers in a holding pen, the women attempt to keep updated on the score.

2006

Ten

Ten 2002

7.28

A visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.

2002

Close-Up

Close-Up 1990

7.90

This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.

1990

Tehran Taboo

Tehran Taboo 2017

7.10

The lives of three strong-willed women and a young musician cross paths in Tehran’s schizophrenic society where sex, adultery, corruption, prostitution and drugs coexist with strict religious law. In this bustling modern metropolis, avoiding prohibition has become an everyday sport and breaking taboos can be a means of personal emancipation.

2017

Under the Shadow

Under the Shadow 2016

6.49

After Shideh's building is hit by a missile during the Iran-Iraq War, a superstitious neighbor suggests that the missile was cursed and might be carrying malevolent Middle-Eastern spirits. She becomes convinced a supernatural force within the building is attempting to possess her daughter Dorsa, and she has no choice but to confront these forces if she is to save her daughter and herself.

2016

Taxi

Taxi 2015

7.10

A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…

2015

The Salesman

The Salesman 2016

7.25

Forced out of their apartment due to dangerous works on a neighboring building, Emad and Rana move into a new flat in the center of Tehran. An incident linked to the previous tenant will dramatically change the young couple’s life.

2016

Crimson Gold

Crimson Gold 2003

7.01

Pizza man Hussein is a daily witnesses to the unjust distribution of wealth in his native Iran. One day, he finds a purse filled with shockingly expensive receipts from an upscale jewelry store. He attempts to bring the purse back to the store, but because of his working-class attire, he's not allowed inside. Then, during a delivery, a rich man invites Hussein into his extravagant mansion – an event that spurs Hussein to make a desperate bid for wealth.

2003

Circumstance

Circumstance 2011

6.72

A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager's growing sexual rebellion and her brother's newfound conservatism.

2011

Teheran '43

Teheran '43 1981

6.20

This story starts in 1980 in Paris as the memories of Andrei Borodin, a Soviet agent, take the action back to 1943 during the Teheran meetings of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. A high-ranking Nazi officer developed a plan to assassinate the three world leaders in order to undermine the Allied forces. He commissioned the German agent Max Richard to carry out his plan, but it failed miserably due to the quick action and thinking of Andrei. While in Teheran, Andrei met a French woman, Marie Louni, living in the city and they had a brief but intense affair. Nearly four decades later, the Nazi officer has been captured - but not for long. Freed by terrorists, the officer is hunting down the German agent who failed to carry out the planned assassinations. Max lives at Françoise, a young French woman, who hides him.

1981

The Color of Paradise

The Color of Paradise 1999

7.52

The story revolves around a blind boy named Mohammed who is released from his special school in Tehran for summer vacation. His father, shamed and burdened by Mohammed's blindness, arrives late to pick him up and then tries to convince the headmaster to keep Mohammed over the summer. The headmaster refuses, so Mohammed's father eventually takes him home.

1999

Baran

Baran 2001

7.50

On a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.

2001

Coup 53

Coup 53 2019

7.60

Tehran, Iran, August 19, 1953. A group of Iranian conspirators who, with the approval of the deposed tyrant Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, have conspired with agents of the British MI6 and the US CIA, manage to put an end to the democratic government led by Mohammad Mosaddegh, a dramatic event that will begin the tragic era of coups d'état that, orchestrated by the CIA, will take place, over the following decades, in dozens of countries around the world.

2019

The Song of Sparrows

The Song of Sparrows 2008

7.40

When an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes into a world alien to him - incredibly hectic Tehran, where sudden opportunities for independence, thrill and challenge him. But his honor and honesty, plus traditional authority over his inventive clan, are tested, as he stumbles among vast cultural and economic gaps between his village nestled in the desert, and a throbbing international metropolis.

2008

Pig

Pig 2018

5.90

A serial killer is going around killing Iran's most beloved filmmakers. Hasan, a blacklisted filmmaker himself, is depressed and wonders: why isn't he being targeted?

2018

My Baba Bozorg

My Baba Bozorg 2023

10.00

My Baba Bozorg was a professor of literature in Tehran, Iran. He moved to Canada in 2002 to live with his son, my father. He spends his days, at large, seldom in his room on the top floor of our suburban home in Scarborough, Ontario. Primarily reading and writing, studying English, watching Persian films, following Persian news, and keeping company to our family dog, Oreo. He never misses his daily walk, morning and evening cups of tea, and telling me Dooset Daram (I love you) when our paths cross. He has watched me grow in this house for 21 of my 22 years of life. Our verbal exchange is remarkably limited given our understanding of one another. A bond I believe can be largely attributed to the beauty our language barrier allows us to see. Nothing about this film was coordinated or discussed prior to shooting. I saw him sleeping, and he woke up and saw me. The rest unfolded. No questions or hesitations.

2023