Iranian Film Series at Berkeley - Jan. 2003

http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa


Pacific Film Archive Presents:

NEW IRANIAN CINEMA

TUESDAY JANUARY 14
7:00 Bemani (To Stay Alive)
Dariush Mehrjui (Iran, 2002)
Beautifully shot and brutally honest-this is the paradox of Bemani, a
stunningly tragic portrait of the desperation of isolated young
women. Three stories set in a town on the Iraqi border build to a
grim fairy tale. A weaver meets a handsome border guard and weaves
him a rug; they are seen together, and soon she is no more. A secret
medical student is found out by her father and imprisoned in his
basement. Bemani, daughter of a poor tenant, is given to her elderly
landlord in marriage. She literally can't wait till he dies. The rate
of attempted suicides among women and girls is stretching the local
hospital's resources. In this rural life, all that should be
beautiful is oppressive: the rich colors of yarns are the color of
blood; masterfully prepared food tastes of a slave's hand; nature's
dry expanses and familiar brooks mean there is nowhere to hide. A
goat has a better life than a woman, until both have served their
purpose.-Judy Bloch
Bemani is repeated on Friday, January 17.
* Written by Mehrjui, Vahideh Mohammadifar. Photographed by Bahram
Badakhshani. With Masoumeh Bakhshi, Neda Aghayi, Shadi Heydari. (95
mins, In Farsi with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Farabi
Cinema Foundation)


9:00 The Exam
Nasser Refaie (Iran, 2002)
(Emtehan). The first narrative feature by Nasser Refaie, The Exam
depicts the anxious present and hopes for the future of hundreds of
women getting ready to take a college-entry exam. Young and old, rich
and poor, they wait patiently for the test, pacing around a packed
courtyard, herded by a loudspeaker's disembodied voice, and killing
time the way most people in college films do: picking on nerds,
furtively smoking bootleg cigarettes, and ogling boys. But unlike
characters in such genre films, they also deal with indignant
husbands or fathers-even mothers-who consider female schooling either
unnecessary or threatening. Masterfully flowing from one group to
another, Refaie orchestrates the women's comments and complaints to
expose contemporary Iranian debates on such topics as modernity
versus tradition, the equality of the sexes, and most of all, the
idea that education will make a difference in life.-Jason Sanders
* Written by Refaie. Photographed by Farzad Jodat. With Raya Nassiri,
Farzin Aghaie, Aghdas Khoshmou, Nahid Refaie. (80 mins, In Farsi with
English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Farabi Cinema Foundation)


WEDNESDAY JANUARY 15
7:00 The Deserted Station
Alireza Raisan (Iran, 2002)
(Istgah-e matrook). Based on an idea by Abbas Kiarostami (the
director's mentor), The Deserted Station is an off-the-road road
movie, where an unexpected detour offers a far greater gain than the
eventual destination. A young urban couple-a well-known photographer
and a former schoolteacher-are on a pilgrimage for a healthy
childbirth when their car breaks down, stranding them in an isolated
village. Most of the able-bodied residents have left to find work
elsewhere; seemingly the only adult left behind is the village
mechanic and teacher Feizollah (Rajabi, one of Iran's greatest
comedians, in a strong role). While Feizollah and the husband attempt
to fix the car, the wife takes over the village classroom, with
intoxicating results. She discovers the world she was traveling to
pray for: a world of children. The serene pacing and epic visions of
deserted landscapes and abandoned buildings add to the film's eerie,
almost fable-like aura. The children's vibrant presence within such
desolation offers the only hope for a better future.-Jason Sanders
* Written by Kambozia Partovi, based on a story by Abbas Kiarostami.
Photographed by Mohammad Aladpoush. With Leila Hatami, Nezam
Manouchehri, Mehran Rajabi, Mahmoud Pak Neeyat. (93 mins, In Farsi
with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Farabi Cinema Foundation)

9:00 A House Built on Water
Bahman Farmanara (Iran, 2002)
(Khaneie rouj-e ab). "The story of a society in a collective coma" is
the stated theme of Bahman Farmanara's sophisticated portrait of a
doctor-and a nation-in crisis. The film won Best Picture at the Fajr
Film Festival and Best Actor for its star Reza Kianian. "There are
wounds in life that eat your soul away," quotes Kianian's character,
a gynecologist. The doctor encounters his society's hidden
diseases-heroin addiction, prostitution, AIDS, and overpopulation-but
it is his emotional guilt as a father, son, and lover that truly
gnaws away at his soul, haunting him with spiritual doubt and dreams
of fallen angels and destiny's unwoven threads. Farmanara uses the
patients' ills and the doctor's melancholia to critique a society
that surrounds and drowns. But he refreshingly moves beyond the
literal with metaphysical digressions and poetic musings, where
dreams and references to classical Persian art and poetry offer
greater solace than any comatose reality.-Jason Sanders
A House Built on Water is repeated on Friday, January 17.
* Written by Farmanara. Photographed by Mahmood Kalari. With Reza
Kianian, Ezat Entezami, Mehdi Safavi, Hedye Tehrani. (107 mins, In
Farsi with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Farabi Cinema
Foundation)


THURSDAY JANUARY 16
7:00 Iranian Spread
Kianoush Ayyari (Iran, 2002)
(Sofreh Irani). A counterfeit thousand-toman note turns up in a
bazaar, and thus begins a journey through every stratum of Iranian
society as the bill is palmed from one unknowing soul to the next,
stranger and loved one alike. From a rich man who passes the note off
on a beggar and gets 950 in change, to a family amusing themselves in
the woods, to a back-alley abortionist's where life is not so
amusing, to a desert wedding where the young bride weeps at her fate
while the elderly groom slips the note to the musicians-so goes la
ronde. Ironic and telling, Iranian Spread offers a human view of
economic crisis where dignity itself is a commodity; the duped are
quick to become dupers. Even more, it is a picture of money-how it
comes into every minute of every day; how it gives direction and
addles perception at the same time. And that's a picture of all of
us.-Judy Bloch
Iranian Spread is repeated on Saturday, January 18.
* Written by Ayyari. Photographed by Dariush Ayyari. With Noor-Ali
Lotfi, Mehrdad Falahatger, Mansoureh Ali-Akbari, Masoumeh Shir-Rafat.
(110 mins, In Farsi with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From
Mohammad Atebbai)

9:10 Yad-O-Yadegar
Mostafa Razzagh Karimi, Mojalal Varahram (Iran, 2002)
Iran as few westerners have seen it-multicultural, immense,
astonishingly diverse, hauntingly beautiful. This ambitious
documentary is an exercise in poetic cartography that takes in the
vast sweep of an ancient, tragic land, tracing not just the length
and breadth of its geography but also the arc of its history as a
nation-state, from the earliest Persian tribes to the present-day
theocratic republic and its ongoing, difficult confrontation with
modernity. The film eschews narrative, opting instead for a
mesmerizing weave of music, image, and sound. The variety of the
country's climatic and natural conditions-deserts, forests, coasts,
and mountains-and the cultures, rites, and religions of its numerous
ethnic groups are all observed with great attention and fidelity.
Four years in the making, this is an exquisitely rendered document, a
testament both to the filmmakers' courage and zeal and to their
subject's infinite richness.-Vancouver International Film Festival
The film has raised controversy in its North American screenings over
its interpretation of contemporary Iran.
Yad-O-Yadegar is repeated on Sunday, January 19.
* Photographed by Mahmood Bahadori. (97 mins, In Farsi with English
subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Mohammad Atebbai)

FRIDAY JANUARY 17
7:00 A House Built on Water
Bahman Farmanara (Iran, 2002)
Please see Wednesday, January 15.

9:10 Bemani (To Stay Alive)
Dariush Mehrjui (Iran, 2002)
Please see Tuesday, January 14.


SATURDAY JANUARY 18
7:00 Baran
Majid Majidi (Iran, 2001)
In depicting the lives of Afghan refugees in Iran, Baran "plunges you
into a reality that is, more often than not, difficult and sad, and
then, without sentimentalizing it or denying its brutality,
transforms that reality into a lyrical and celebratory vision. [The
film's] hero is a young laborer named Latif, who fetches groceries
and serves tea at a construction site where many of the laborers are
Afghan émigrés working illegally. After one is injured, his son
arrives to take his place....Before long...Latif discovers that the
new boy is actually a girl named Baran, and he commences an awkward,
earnest courtship....The lovely clarity of this story, which seems to
have been drawn from the literature of an earlier age, is well served
by the artful subtlety of the telling. [Director] Majidi prefers
imagery to exposition, and his shots are as dense with meaning, and
as readily accessible, as Dutch paintings" (A.O. Scott, New York
Times).
* Written by Majidi. Photographed by Mohammad Davudi. With Hossein
Abedini, Zahra Bahrami, Mohammad Reza Naji. (94 mins, In Farsi and
Dari with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Miramax)

8:55 Iranian Spread
Kianoush Ayyari (Iran, 2002)
Please see Thursday, January 16.


SUNDAY JANUARY 19
3:00, 5:30 I Am Taraneh, 15
Rasul Sadr-Ameli (Iran, 2002)
(Man, Taraneh, panzdah sal daram). Fifteen-year-old Taraneh, whose
only friend is her imprisoned father, finally succumbs to a marriage
proposal from Amir, the boy who works at the carpet shop next door.
But the marriage ends bitterly only four months later, and Taraneh is
left to face the challenge of an unplanned pregnancy. Despite the
lack of support from the adults in her life, Taraneh remains doggedly
true to her own sensibility and navigates her life's many
difficulties with a maturity that belies her years. The soulful
Taraneh Alidousti's beautiful performance in the title role makes I
Am Taraneh, 15-winner of the Jury Prize at the Locarno Film
Festival-a truly transcendent tale of societal norms overcome by the
extraordinary power of common sense and heart.-Joanne Parsont
* Written by Sadr-Ameli, Kambuzia Partovi. Photographed by Bahram
Badakhshani. With Taraneh Alidousti, Hossein Mahjoub, Mahtab
Nasirpoor. (110 mins, In Farsi with English subtitles, Color, 35mm,
From Farabi Cinema Foundation)

7:40 Yad-O-Yadegar
Mostafa Razzagh Karimi, Mojalal Varahram (Iran, 2002)
Please see Thursday, January 16.

PFA Theater: 2575 Bancroft Way @ Bowditch, Berkeley/ 510-642-1412/
http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa

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Laura Deutch
Outreach Coordinator
Pacific Film Archive
2625 Durant Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94720-2250
510/642-6883
www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa