Kamran Shirdel

Shirdel made a fertile production of highly praised industrial and educational films. "Wagon Pars" is a fine example of his industrial documentaries.

Cradle of Sun

Kamran Shirdel's 1964 diploma film at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome unfolds in an urban apartment with a despondent man, who appears to be an artist or a writer, contemplating his existence through mirrors set about the room. Featuring the music of Anton Webern's Six Pieces for Orchestra Opus 6, the film has no dialogue. Gli Specchi, also known as The Mirrors, was made in the same period that saw Shirdel working as an assistant director for John Huston on The Bible and it went on to win the diploma of honor in the World Cinema School Film Festival in Tokyo in 1965.

The film shows the life of prostitutes in Tehran's city brothels, an area known as Shahre Now. The film closely follows a number of women and communicates how the burden of social constraints led them to surrender in the face of their common fate. The film does explore the possibility of re-education and development for these women, but in no way does it paint over the hard and brutal reality. The film was produced on behalf of the Organization of Iranian Women and was immediately banned while shooting was still going on. After the revolution, a portion of the material was found, and Shirdel decided to finish the film using photos by the late Kaveh Golestan that were taken more than ten years after the film itself was shot.

Short documentary about the Paykan automobile assembly-line

Tehran Is the Capital of Iran (1966-79) documents life in a deprived district in the south of Tehran. The images of destitution in Tehran's poor areas is accompanied by a variety of spoken accounts: the official viewpoint on the district's living conditions, what the inhabitants have to say, and occasional extracts read out of school manuals. The key element in Shirdel's film is the counterpoint effect he creates with image and sound. His impressively powerful portrayal of social unease helps reinforce the impact of his astonishing documentary images and social themes.