Thursday 7th May 7.30pm we host a free screening and Q&A of Dingomaro (2014, 66mins) with Cine Club DXB. On Iran’s Gulf coast a particular culture has grown from centuries of naval history and nearby trade. African roots in Iran result in remarkable and distinct customs, including styles of Persian-African music and dancing that is … Continue reading
The Persian Empire Strikes Back, once again… After the 2007 blockbuster Sword and Sandals hit 300 based on Frank Miller’s comic book adaptation of the Persian Greek Battle of Thermopylae (the Hot Gates), Warner Bros. is producing the sequel to the former epic tale : 300 Rise of an Empire. Despite it’s box office success the … Continue reading
Vice Magazine brings its trademark irreverent humour to Iran and digs briefly into the film industry. “Iranians love the school of their children and the cinema” they are told. To be fair presenter, Shane Smith’s pronunciation isn’t that bad. A Canadian who’s made films for Vice looking at for example, Mexican cinema, Smith has a … Continue reading
Shirin Neshat was one of the International Jury for 2013 Berlinale (the 63rd International Film Festival in Berlin) alongside actor/director Tim Robbins in February. This is a great year for Neshat, partly because she is taking part in an historic new season at the newly opened Islamic Arts Department of the world-renowned Paris Museum The … Continue reading
Filmmaker Mohammad Shirvani has a following on international festival circuits, but Fat Shaker is his first Iranian feature in the Sundance film festival is programmed in the reputedly under-appreciated New Frontier experimental section. This highly individualized work, remains unlikely to see exposure beyond film festival and educational settings in Europe and beyond, it is not … Continue reading
Iranian new wave cinema is agreed to have begun in the 1960s with Darius Mehrjui’s seminal film The Cow, and is also widely attributed to the realism of female poet Farroukh Farouzad in her experimental film set in a leper colony The House is Black. But not often discussed is Farrokh Gaffari’s the Night of … Continue reading
