Film Information
Year: 2023
Duration: 80
Language: VOSE
Genre: Documentary
Synopsis
Celluloid Underground is an autobiographical feature-length documentary by Iranian filmmaker and writer Ehsan Khoshbakht, which chronicles his experience growing up in Iran after the 1979 revolution, when his love for cinema became the catalyst for his rebellion against the Islamic regime. It is the story of his friendship with the mysterious Ahmad, an unconventional film collector who hid thousands of banned 35mm prints and posters in basements in downtown Tehran to save them from fundamentalist fanatics. Born just after the revolution, Ehsan grew up obsessed with all the films he was not allowed to see. He became Ahmad’s closest collaborator in the underground cinematheque, before escaping to a new life in London. In Celluloid Underground, Ehsan celebrates the power of cinema to resist tyranny and the unsung heroism of the friend who changed his life. From the pain of his exile, he questions whether their shared obsession was worth the price they both paid for it.
Director
Ehsan Khoshbakht is an Iranian filmmaker, curator and author raised in London. His first feature film, Filmfarsi (2019), about lost Iranian popular cinema from the Shah era, was screened at over 40 film festivals and cinematheques around the world. He has also made several documentaries for BBC World Service, including Duke Ellington in Isfahan, which was selected for the Telluride festival in 2021. Ehsan is co-director of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, the world’s leading festival dedicated to film history and restoration. He regularly programs film cycles in various parts of the world, most recently at MoMA in New York, the Cinémathèque Française in Paris, the Cinémathèque Portuguesa in Lisbon, the Viennale in Vienna, Cinemateket in Copenhagen and the Filmoteca de Catalunya in Barcelona. He is also the author and editor of several books on cinema.
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