Film Series OFF-AFFBCN: «Iran, portraits of a society»

The most recent Iranian cinema reappears in our programme with eight titles that will be screened between the months of July and September of 2022. Our purpose is to show the most recent and representative film production made in Iran. Casa Asia has shown a particular interest for this country’s cinema, both in the Asian Film Festival Barcelona | AFFBCN as well as in our yearly film programmes which take place in Cinemes Girona, Betevé and Filmin.

The curiosity aroused by Iranian cinema is not surprising, as can be seen by the latest commercial premieres that have taken place in our country. Solid scripts are one of the characteristics of this cinematography, and it obviously contributes to the success of the narratives that wager for this new cinema and its schools.

Of the eight films shown it is difficult to single out one instead of another, and not deviate the attention that all of them deserve. Titles like Children of the Night, the film with which we open this series, informs us about an international conflict, but also brings us closer to the lives of its victims, whose survival is always at stake. In another vein, Drown starts with the killing of a woman, and Bandar Band groups together a band of singers that go on to live a whole lot of personal adventures in a road movie until reaching Tehran. This is just an example of the titles that have been gathered for this film series, which will undoubtedly contribute to our knowledge of a country and a cinematography that make us travel and look through events in homes and public spaces, in order to establish a dialogue.

PROGRAMME:

A child soldier, craving heroin, with a Kalashnikovs in hand has been involved in more than fifty ISIS wars and conflicts. Balanche is among the first child soldiers to tell his stories and observations of one of the most terrifying wars in the world in full detail, along with his four other companions in Children of the Night. At the age of twelve, he fled home after an insurgent attack taking shelter in his country, Pakistan’s religious schools. At the age of thirteen was recruited by local liaisons. Terrible violence and the ability to perform unpredictable behaviours in war have prepared them to create dangerous events the day after the war.

After a long time, some Iranian singers are planning to enter an unofficial competition in a cafeteria in Tehran. Pregnant Mahla, along with the other members of Bandar Band, her husband, and one of her closest friends, starts her journey to Tehran from a Southern province after losing everything they had in a flood. Although they keep their hopes up, every road they take leads to a dead-end in a flood-stricken land. They intend to go to the capital of Iran, but instead they wonder if it is just another turn in a vicious circle.

After leaking a video of her class in a women-only swimming pool, Parvaneh is brutally murdered by her husband, Hashem, who seeks a way to redeem his reputation and dignity as the godfather in the neighborhood. Hashem’s brother, Hojat, embarks on a journey into the labyrinths of the underground in Tehran to find out who is responsible for this dirty game. Once wrongfully accused of smuggling drugs, he returns to the world of crime to trace his brother’s rivals.

In a remote village between the rocky mountains in Kurdistan, everyone is in love with football, but there is no plain field to play the game. The children decide to climb up the mountain in order to find somewhere to have fun.

Right before Soodeh Sharifzadegan’s second marriage, her 11-year-old son, Matiar, is kidnapped. After considerable effort, Soodeh is forced to ask for the ransom money from her ex-husband, Peyman. After Matiar’s release, Soodeh, being curious, comes to the sudden realization that it was all her son’s plan to provide the grounds for his father’s return.

Involved in different legal and illegal petty works, Mohammad is working and living in a room in the biggest football stadium in Tehran with his wife and his little son. During a riot in the capital of Iran, he disappears while two women are looking for him impatiently: his wife, Maryam, who is going around all through the city, and a convicted woman, Shahla, who needs him because he is the only witness who can save her from death with a confession in the appeal court.

Amir has been recently deported from France. Unemployed and idle, he has to stay at his father’s house. For the sake of his progenitor, he gets involved in a horrifying crime which consequently leads him towards the foreign currencies black market. But he knows that the mystery should be unfolded in the last act.

The story is based on true events that took place in 1987. Sardasht, a Kurdish city in the Iran/Iraq border, along with several villages in the surrounding areas are attacked with chemical weapons by Iraqi forces. Ghader, a villager from the area and his pregnant wife, as well as his three young children, are exposed to the chemicals and suffer injuries. The situation in the village and surrounding cities is chaotic. Ghader must singlehandedly try to keep his family alive.

02/07/2022
From the 2nd of July to the 24th of September of 2022.
Weekly on saturdays at 20h.
Cinemes Girona
Carrer de Girona, 175
Barcelona
Ticket price: 4,5 euros
Discounts and members of Cinemes Girona: 3 euros
Casa Asia, in collaboration with Cinemes Girona, Cultural Department of the R.I. Iran’s embassy in Spain, Farabi Foundation and Irimage.