The Needle and The Thread

This is a film about the making of Salaam Cinema by Mohsen Makhmalbaf in Tehran and it’s eventual screening in Cannes Film Festival. Viewers are introduced to the personal and professional sides of Makhmalbaf and also to the uncontrollable passion for the cinema, held by the Iranian youth.

A young teenager returns home after an absence to find his village in Iran deserted because of an incredibly severe drought. He begins a search to find his family, traveling through an amazingly bleak and desolate landscape. Primarily an essay on the issue of humans vs. nature, the film is of interest for technical and cultural reasons.

Flesh and fantasy fill the nights of the call girls at Bambi’s, a flashy back street brothel. Join Bambi, Candy and the girls for an evening or two and find out what happens in the violent world of sex for sale. Candy is new to the business. She follows all of the rules of the house - she arrives on time, doesn’t take drugs, is polite to customers, and numb to all the men who used her. Then she meets Reg and breaks the most important rule - don’t fall in love with one of your customers. Their first encounter leaves her longing to see him again. She fantasizes about the love they share and how idyllic their life together would be. But the facts are clear. Candy is a hooker and she will never be a real part of his world … she’s one of Bambi’s girls. She has seen his life and felt his love, a brief glimpse is all she’ll ever have, KISS THE NIGHT!

Before the Islamic Revolution in Iran, women's lives were strongly determined by two contradictory factors: the traditional patriarchy and the shah's modernisation policies. This film-excerpt collage starts in 1932 – the year the first Iranian film with sound was made – and ends in 1979 revealing how, during this period, women were depicted by generally male film directors.

The similarities and the differences of two painter brothers, Nami and Nima Petgar.

A train driver always moves at work, but in his personal life...

Three disasters with three happy ends.

People are waiting at the bus station…

A behind-the-scenes film dealing with the art of filmmaking. Shot on location during the making of the ABC drama The Leaving of Liverpool, it celebrates the whole medium of cinema through sound and visual excerpts from films around the world and comments by their directors.