UC Davis 

Iranian
Film Series
2005-2006

194 Young Hall @8PM
                                                                                                         Click Here for Map & Directions

 View Film Series' Poster  
 Fall 2005 CALENDAR 

(All Entries are Free Admission)

Monday, October 17, 2005                                                                                                                    

  • Bashu, the Little Stranger            {PDF File}
         Monday, October 17 @ 8PM | 194 Young Hall | Directions
    (d. Bahram Bayza'i, 1989, 120 min,Iran, Farsi with English subtitles)                                                                                                                         
    During the Iran-Iraq War, Bashu, a young boy, loses his house and all his family. Scared, he sneaks into a truck that is leaving the area. He gets off the truck in the Northern part of the country, where everything from landscape to language is different.                                                                                    
     

 

Monday, November 07, 2005

IRAN: Veiled Appearances    {PDF File}
Monday, November 07 @ 8PM | 194 Young Hall | Directions        
(d. Thierry Michel 2002, 90 min, Belgium, English and Farsi with English Subtitles)
Thierry Michel set out for Iran at a time when the country was convulsed by contrary pressures: student disturbances forced the regime to step down in the field of culture and its attitude towards women. Militant fundamentalists protest against the reforms. Veterans of the Iran-Iraq War are going through disillusionment and a feeling of futility. There are fundamentalist religious schools here, possibly fertile ground for future terrorism, but also cultural institutions open to the world. Dissidents spend years in prison. Citizens experience deep frustration, but for many different reasons. Young people want, above all, to get away. Michel, through unique testimonies, gives a complex picture of a society which today needs the support of democracy much more than military intervention from outside...

  •  Winner/Joseph Plateau Award /Best Belgian Documentary

  •  Official Website

  •  Review by FILM THREAT

Monday, November 21, 2005

* Bitter Dream (Khabe Talkh)        {PDF File}
Monday, November 21 @ 8PM | 194 Young Hall | Directions                    
(d. Mohsen Amiryoussefi, 2004, 87 min,)  
Genre: Comedy                                                                                                                                                                 (Northern California Premiere)
 For forty years, Esfandiar has been unconcernedly preparing corpses for the journey to their final resting place. One day, whilst preparing a burial service, he's taken ill. Might he too be mortal?
 Mohsen Amiryoussefi's feature film debut probes the difficult subject of human mortality with dignity, grace, and a tremendous amount of humor.
In the small town of Sedeh, life and death are very closely linked, and the heart of the place rests in an ancient cemetery managed by Mr. Esfandiar. Under Esfandiar's charge are his dim-witted young apprentice, an opium-addicted grave-digger, and Delbar, a widow responsible for the female dead. Though he attends to his dead with great care, Esfandiar is a solitary skinflint of a man, unafraid to bash his employees on the head for the slightest infraction. But one strange night he is given a rare glimpse of his own mortality. Realizing that the Angel of Death he has always seen as a business partner may now be coming for him, Esfandiar resolves to seek forgiveness for his bad behavior.
Amiryoussefi's lovely fable is enhanced by striking visual compositions: eggshell-hued boulders juxtaposed against a turquoise sky, dark rippling waters of a subterranean bath house, black moving through white and orange as Esfandiar and Delbar take a reconciliatory bike-ride through a fall birch forest.
In the end, Amiryoussefi and his incredible cast of unprofessional actors—playing themselves—beautifully ascertain that redemption lies not in the forgiveness of others, but in humanity's ability to cherish its own loving, troublesome, and often hilarious connection to the world around it.

  • Being described from critics as one of the most unique and creative films from Iranian Cinema in the recent year

  • Winner: Cannes Film Festival / 2004 / Won Golden Camera - Special Mention

  • Winner: Thessaloniki Film Festival / 2004 / Won Audience Award / Golden Alexander

  • See Photos

  • Watch the French Trailer

Monday, January 23, 2006

* Once Upon A Time Cinema        {PDF File}
Monday, January 23 @ 8PM | 194 Young Hall | Directions                     
(d. Mohsen Makhmalbf, 1992, 92 min, Farsi with English Subtitles)                                                                                                                               
For forty years, Esfandiar has been unconcernedly preparing corpses for the journey to their final resting place. One day, whilst preparing a burial service, he's taken ill. Might he too be mortal? Mohsen Amiryoussefi's feature film debut probes the difficult subject of human mortality with dignity, grace, and a tremendous amount of humor…      

Director’s View:
 ONCE UPON A TIME, CINEMA … is a fantasy on the pattern of fairy tales of “One thousand and one nights”, which presents a condensed history of Iranian cinema and expresses the love of cinema in general.
 

  •  Selected as one of the 10 best Films of  Iranian Cinema in last 30 years by Iranian Critic's Association 

  • See Photos

  • Official website

Monday February 13, 2006

59 Ko

* Iranian Animation Series       {PDF File}
Tues, February 13 8PM | 194 Young Hall | Directions         
 
 A series of wonderful rarely seen Iranian Animations.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Les contes de la mère poule - Mother Hen’s Tales” (Shangoul-o-Mangoul, Mahiye ranguin kaman va Lili Hozak)

Monday, March 13, 2006

 Leila   {PDF File}
Monday, March 13 @ 8PM | 194 Young Hall | Directions                     
(d. Dariush Mehrjui, 1996, 92 min, Farsi with English Subtitles)                                                                                                                               
 An affluent and attractive Iranian couple has their new marriage disturbed by tradition when the wife discovers she can't conceive. Her meddlesome mother-in-law convinces the upset young woman that her husband must take a second wife in order to produce an heir. The wife agrees to assist in the search for a mate for her husband, carrying her tormented emotions with her as the nature of the couple's relationship is forever altered. "...a subtle and ultimately devastating exploration of love's perversity" (Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix).

  • Selected as one of the 10 best Films of  Iranian Cinema in last 30 years by Iranian Critic's Association 

  • About Dariush Mehrjuji

  • See Trailer

Monday, April 17, 2006

 Through the Olive Trees        {PDF File}
Monday, April 17 @ 8PM | 194 Young Hall | Directions                     
(d. Abbas Kiarostami, 1994, 100 min, Farsi with English Subtitles)                                                                                                                               
 "The social status of filmmaking among ordinary people, central to Abbas Kiarostami's wonderful Close-up and Life and Nothing More, is equally operative in this entertaining and sometimes beautiful film. Through the Olive Trees (1994) concludes a trilogy begun with Where Is the Friend's House?, which focused on the adventures of a poor schoolboy in a mountainous region of northern Iran. Life and Nothing More, the second and best film of the three, fictionally re-created Kiarostami and his son's return to the area, which had recently been devastated by an earthquake, to look for two child actors from the earlier film. Through the Olive Trees is a comedy about the making of a film, mostly emphasizing the persistent efforts of a young actor to woo an actress who won't even speak to him. Like Kiarostami's more recent Taste of Cherry, all three films strategically elide certain information about the characters, inviting audiences to fill in the blanks and in this case yielding a mysteriously beautiful and open-ended conclusion. If you're unfamiliar with Kiarostami--one of our greatest living filmmakers and certainly the greatest in Iran--this is an excellent introduction."         Jonathan Rosenbaum - the Chicago Reade


  •  

  • Selected as one of the 10 best Films of  Iranian Cinema in last 30 years by Iranian Critic's Association 

  • About Abbas Kiarostami

Monday, May 15, 2006

 Our Times         {PDF File}
Tuesday, March 17 @ 8PM | 194 Young Hall | Directions                     
(d. Rakhshan Banietemad , 2002, 65 min, Farsi with English Subtitles)                                                                                                                               
  "A fascinating documentary from Rakshan Bani-Etemad (The May Lady), the most outspoken and respected female director working in Iran today. Bani-Etemad's film focuses on the Iranian elections of 2002 and the role of women in Iranian society. The filmmaker follows a group of women who run for office and gradually narrows her view to the plight of one woman who attempts an heroic but unsuccessful run for the presidency. "An unforgettable picture of women in today's Iran" (Variety). 

Monday, June 5, 2006

Under the Skin of the City (2003) Poster

 Under the skin of the city         {PDF File}
Monday, June 5 @ 8PM | 194 Young Hall | Directions                     
(d. Rakhshan Banietemad , 2001, 65 min, Farsi with English Subtitles)                                                                                                                                      
  Under the Skin of the City is the 7th feature film directed by leading female Iranian filmmaker, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad. Set at the time of the parliamentary elections of 1997, her latest film is a dramatic and complex portrayal of the travails of a family in a working class suburb of Tehran. The film is a valuable work because its subjects are recognizable human beings who have not been destroyed by adversity. They navigate an inhuman social system with varying degrees of consciousness, disarmed by confusion and illusions, but never by resignation.

Tuesday, January 31 @ 7PM:                                  Lecture on Iranian Cinema          

A lecture by the renown Iranian Scholar from Columbia University
Dr. Hamid Dabashi
And author of the book Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present and Future

Topic of Lecture:                                                  

"Kiarostami or Makhmalbaf: On the Antinomies of Iranian Culture

Time: Tuesday, January 31st AT 7PM
Place: University Club Room 
                                      Click Here for Direction

Sponsored By: Middle East/South Asia Studies @

  •  The Dates, Locations and the details of the series is subject to change                                                                                              View Film Series' Poster  

  •  For updates, more details and directions Please Visit our website frequently:                                                                                       Fall 2005 CALENDAR 
    For more information on film series contact:  Sina@ISCAO.com   or  (408) 7994427