Hossein Kasbian

The Grandfather

A man decides to sell the old family house to move into a modern apartment in the suburbs, and at the same time decides to send his father to a nursing home.

Mother

The film progresses along two distinct but interwoven series of events. The first series involves young members of a family who have gathered round their old mother and revive their common childhood memories. the second line focuses on the old woman's preparations for her last journey and her joyous cooperation in arranging for the ceremonies that are to be observed after her death.

Shaghayegh

A look at the life of Ahmad.

The Hostage

Mr. Hieroglyph

On his holiday, Mr. Hieroglyph wakes up tumultuous and goes to the office. He sees some signs on the screen of his computer written in hieroglyph. He goes to the central library to discover the lines. He finds a thesis his daughter has written when she was a student. By using the thesis, he reviews the story of his daughter. In the past years, she has gone to the factories and then was assigned by a political group to organize a group of mine workers to fight. Recommendations made by the girl and her friends are opposed to the opinions of the leaders. The girl distributes a leaflet on behalf of the workers which results in a disturbance. She escapes and after a while she is killed in a street struggle.

Dossier

An imprisoned tough guy acts as a stool pigeon for the authorities, an action that violates the tough guys’ ideal code of conduct.

Smell of Camphor, Fragrance of Jasmine

Death surrounds Bahman, a director who hasn't made a film in 24 years (he can't get past the censors). He's working on a documentary, for Japanese TV, on Iranian burial practices. On the anniversary of his wife's death, a hitchhiker tells him a story of spousal abuse and infant mortality, he discovers that someone has been buried in his plot next to his wife, and he needs the help of his attorney, a well-connected fixer. He dreams of death, even as he investigates it for his film. His niece's husband, a well-known writer, fails to return home; he searches hospitals for an unclaimed body. His heart disease is flaring up. Is he prepared for death? Is that all that's left?

The Legend of the King and the Shepherd

One evening in a grand royal palace, a frivolous and grotesque sultan has a nightmare. The great diviner concludes that on a full moon evening arrows of doom will fall on his head. Frightened, the sultan feels discomfort and falls ill in bed...

Tall Shadows of the Wind

Based on a short story by Houshang Golshiri, this film centers on mysterious and chilling events that take place in a village. A group of superstitious inhabitants have erected a scarecrow for protection but soon find themselves terrorized by it. Made at the end of the Shah’s reign, the film offers a metaphorical reflection on power relations — how people create their own idols who turn around to terrorize them.

Downpour

When he takes a job as a schoolteacher in a new neighborhood, the hapless intellectual Mr. Hekmati finds that he is a fish out of water.

Prince Ehtejab

Prince Ehtejab, one of the last remaining heirs of the Qajar royal family, is suffering from tuberculosis, which he knows is fatal. He spends his last days alone in the magnificent rooms of his wintry palace, from where he recollects the glory days of his ancestors as well as days of degradation. Among the latter are the gruesome manner in which his cruel grandfather murdered his mother and brother, and the way that he himself caused the death of his wife.

A House Built on Water

Director Bahman Farmanara's second film following a 20-year exile from his native Iran depicts the spiritual crisis of a middle-aged man. In the film's dreamlike opening scene, Dr. Reza Sepidbakht (Reza Kianian), a well-off Tehran gynecologist, thinks he runs over an angel while driving home at night with a call girl. The next morning at the hospital where he works, he is shown a comatose boy who is famous for having memorized the entire Koran. These two events cause him to rethink his cynical outlook on life and his relationships with his elderly father, wayward son, and the women he has mistreated since becoming estranged from his wife. When the boy awakens from his coma, Dr. Sepidbakht begins to look to him for answers.

The Musketeer

When an attempted breakout of a prisoner ends in mass bloodshed, a power struggle erupts between the lawmen and a group of civilians in a rural province. As hostilities between the two sides slowly escalate, the animosity felt by the rebel leader towards his enemies slowly grows. Violence only begets more violence as a brutal attack is met with an act of revenge. A Bloody historical epic from Jamshid Heydari.

Hotel

The story takes place in the two-star Morvarid Hotel and depicts the adventures of its employees with each other and the hotel's passengers. Each part of the series has a number of guest actors who play the role of hotel guests and have adventures in the city of Tehran.

Sultan and Berger

One evening in a grand royal palace, a frivolous and grotesque sultan has a nightmare. The great diviner concludes that on a full moon evening arrows of doom will fall on his head. Frightened, the sultan feels discomfort and falls ill in bed...