Rehearsals for a Revolution

Manijeh Hekmat's music-infused twist on a road movie follows a band's day-long journey across a flooded landscape to Tehran.

Nearly three years have passed since the "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests in Iran. Many who took part in the 2022 (1401) demonstrations paid a heavy price: some were killed, many were permanently injured, others were sentenced to long prison terms, and many lost their jobs. Among the well-known figures who supported the protests was Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s most prominent film actresses. After she posted an unveiled photo of herself and later protested the execution of Mohsen Shekari, she was imprisoned. Following her release, she became ill and remained out of the public eye for some time. Alidoosti has also been banned from acting in cinema. For the first time, in the documentary Taraneh, produced by Pegah Ahangarani, Alidoosti speaks about her decision to join the protest movement after the killing of Mahsa Amini. She talks about the day she was arrested at home in front of her little daughter and about the loss of her skin due to an autoimmune disease.

Pegah talks about Gholam, a man who’s not like her father, mother, uncles, or aunts, even though he’s always present at family gatherings. Gholam films these everyday scenes with his own camera. At the time, Pegah can’t imagine what the purpose of these films might be, but she’s happy to pose before the lens of this family friend, who she’s certainly very fond of.

Revenge may have irreversible consequences.

Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.

A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.

In order to prepare her best and brightest for the upcoming chemistry Olympiad, strict, conservative headmistress Ms. Darabi is forced to break her lifelong rule of not allowing male teachers in the school and reluctantly hires the bumbling Mr. Jebeli. Little does she know though that several of her students, led by the self-assured Paria, have a plan to get her to fall in love with him. 'No Men Allowed' is a hilarious, rollicking romcom, chock-full of witty dialogue and zany antics that will have you coming back time and time again!

A road trip takes many unexpected turns.

Spanning 18 years in an Iranian women's prison, this follows two women: the new prison warden, a tough as nails devout Muslim who has served in the army on the Iraqi front, and a young midwife, Mitra, who is serving her sentence for killing her mother's abusive husband. In the early years, Mitra is repeatedly punished as the warden tries to break her. This includes punishment for delivering a baby in the prison cell while all of the prison staff has taken shelter during an Iraqi bombing. The warden's attitude starts to change after 8 years, when Mitra tries to protect a new inmate from rape at the hands of her older cellmates. When the baby comes back in 1991 as a 17 year old delinquent, Sepideh, the warden respects Mitra enough to protect the girl.

An invitation for a famous Iranian bandmaster, Maxx, living in a foreign country, is accidentally sent to a young cabaret singer with the same name.

On their way back from a wild party, Arine and Nobahar cause a car accident. A mysterious stranger by the name of Toofan offers to cover the costs. This won't be the last time they'll cross his path over the course of the night.

This fascinating moral thriller is centered on the bristling relationship between two very different young women in contemporary Tehran. Nazanin (Nazanin Bayati) is a determined first year medical student. Since there is no free space in the university dorm and Nazanin does not have much money, she is obliged to share an apartment with Sahar (Pegah Ahangarani), a party lover who works in a fragrance shop. Sahar badly wants to migrate from Iran, so she’s borrowed money from a man in the bazaar. When this man makes an opportunistic complaint against Sahar, she is imprisoned. There have been some very some rocky times between the two roommates and their conflicting lifestyles, but Nazanin will now do everything she can to have her friend released.

Tomorrow is Samira's wedding ceremony and Bahar and Parisa are shopping excitedly. But at night somebody calls and tells them that the bride is dead and the wedding has been called off. They are both shocked and they cannot believe what they have heard, so they go straight to their friend's fiancé, Mansoor, to find out about the cause of her suspicious death.

When Yasmin was six years old, as her son is now, the family immigrated to Berlin. Now the heroine is forced to return to Iran because of the death of her father. the son suffers from autism, and this greatly complicates the trip. Arriving in Iran, Yasmin, who hardly knew her father, is surprised to discover that he left her all the inheritance. a short and unwanted stay in her father's hometown and meetings with those who knew him make her rethink concepts such as life, death and human nature.

The depressed Shirin wanders around at her father's funeral. Unexpectedly, she sees a man very much like her father. Regardless of her uncle's objection, Shirin is enchanted by the idea of finding out that man. Reluctantly, her uncle acknowledges that the man is her father's illegitimate child. Looking at gloomy daughter, Shirin's mother tells her about some past events, especially about an unexpected truth that Shirin is her father's adopted daughter. It seems to be clear that Shirin and that man have no blood bond. But her father's mistress tells a different story.

The story of this film is about the life of Dr. Jalal Soroush.