Iran proud films2/17/2024 Rakhshan Banietemad is known as the First Lady of Iranian Cinema, though the fruits of her 40-year career are relatively unknown abroad. Prime Video See You Tomorrow Elina (2011) Farhadi makes his point best as you spend the next few weeks wondering whether things could have turned out differently in this domestic drama with no real answers other than that life is simply too complicated. Aside from the intricate discussion of psychology and modern family dynamics, A Separation is one of the most delicate handlings of religion and how it interacts with class in Iranian cinema, as Farhadi juxtaposes a secular, urban, middle-class couple with a religious, working-class family from the south of Tehran, about whom they have a number of unsavory preconceptions. As the title suggests, the film depicts a couple driven to divorce who are unable to agree on whether they should stay in Iran to look after the husband’s ailing father or migrate for the sake of their daughter’s future. The first Iranian film to win an Academy Award, taking home the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, A Separation marked Asghar Farhadi as a director who invites viewers to make a judgment on the personal lives of others and then crowds this judgment with the complexities of life until it can no longer stand. A brilliant introduction to Iranian film, Taxi Tehran is characteristic of the industry’s refusal to cave to regime pressure and how this has created a distinctive cinematic language. In the film, Panahi moonlights as a taxi driver using his dashboard camera, he records discussions on capital punishment, freedom of artistic expression, and crime with his passengers - including the now-imprisoned human-rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh. Taxi Tehran, which won the top prize at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival, is his most joyous, petulant response to the ban. From this loophole (albeit one the regime eventually arrested him for exploiting) emerged a series of films in which Panahi plays himself. In 2010, the Islamic regime banned renowned filmmaker Jafar Panahi from working on the basis that his movies constitute “anti-government propaganda.” His response was to interpret the ban as prohibiting him only from directing, arguing that nothing was preventing him from being in front of the camera. Pick and choose from this list or watch them in succession to be taken on a journey through films that dovetail one another’s discourse on such topics as masculinity, women’s rights, the harsh conditions of rural life, and the importance of film as a form of resistance. Here are 25 essential Iranian movies available to stream or watch as VOD, including classic hybrid documentaries, psychological dramas, and gory thrillers that attest to the terrifying reality of life under theocracy. Yet the past few years have seen the most internationally acclaimed Iranian films make their way to streaming services - a boon for cinephiles as well as those looking to get to know the country better through its cinematic tradition, which is rooted in social justice. Sanctions and the Islamic regime’s distaste for all things western have prevented Iranian movies from being shown on most mainstream streaming sites abroad arrests and travel bans prevent filmmakers from publicizing their work and the film industry’s association with opposition to the regime means the Iranian government rarely puts forward even the most acclaimed directors’ work for international awards competitions. Iranian film hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves outside of the country’s flourishing pirated-DVD industry - a black market that lets even the most controversial films still be seen in Iran - for a few reasons. Yet despite this (or rather because of it), many Iranian movies are difficult to view in the West. Iranian movies are unlike anything Hollywood produces: Many break the fourth wall in their attempts to shed light on the injustices of modern Iranian society because, in a country where you can expect to be arrested multiple times during your film’s production, movies are not simply artistic expression but rather an agent in a filmmaker’s life. Since the Iranian revolution of 1979, however, movies have carried the country’s artistic banner through the threat of censorship and the regime’s crackdown on filmmakers. Historically, poetry was Iran’s most prominent cultural export.
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