Death of Yazdgerd

Bahram Beyzai's poetic imagining of the circumstances that led to the death of Yazdgerd III, the last of the Sassanid kings of Iran. His death in 651, during the Arab invasions that brought Islam to this Zoroastrian realm, was mysterious: his corpse was discovered in a mill, but the cause of his death—and the whereabouts of his remains—are unknown.

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.

Tales

Award-winning Iranian filmmaker Rakshan Banietemad ends her eight-year hiatus from feature filmmaking with this ingenious, mosaic-like narrative, which knits together the stories of seven characters to create a microcosm of Iranian working-class society.

The mirror man

House of Sand and Fog

Behrani, an Iranian immigrant buys a California bungalow, thinking he can fix it up, sell it again, and make enough money to send his son to college. However, the house is the legal property of former drug addict Kathy. After losing the house in an unfair legal dispute with the county, she is left with nowhere to go. Wanting her house back, she hires a lawyer and befriends a police officer. Neither Kathy nor Behrani have broken the law, so they find themselves involved in a difficult moral dilemma.

Maybe Some Other Time

Famed actress Susan Taslimi plays three roles here: Kian, who doubts her identity; Vida, the twin sister, a self-assured artist; and their mother, who gives up one child out of fear of poverty, then deprives the other of affection because she deeply regrets the child whom she has abandoned.

Dash Akol

Dash Akol is greatly respected in Shiraz as an honorable man who has lost his family's money through helping his friends. He has an enemy, however, named Kaka Rostam, a mean and spiteful person. Dash Akol, who is in his forties, falls in love with Marjan, daughter of the late Haji Samad, for whose estate he is the executor. But he keeps his love secret. One day a suitor asks for Marjan's hand, and Dash Akol considers it against his code of honor to refuse. On the night of the wedding, Dash Akol hands over responsibility for the family to the bridegroom. As he is leaving the house, however, Kaka Rostam is waiting for him and a fight ensues. Kaka Rostam stabs him in the back, but Dash Akol succeeds in killing him. On his deathbed, Dash Akol sends his parrot to Marjan with the confession of love he has taught it.

Boycott

Valeh, a member of a leftist organization, is arrested by the SAVAK and sentenced to death. In prison, he reconsiders his relationships with members of his political cell, and begins to doubt the validity of the ideas for which he is condemned. At the same time, his comrades pressure him to make a sacrifice for their cause, and his beloved wife experiences personal problems and economic hardships.

Green Days

A playwright Iran tries to confront a creative crisis while political clashes erupt during her country's 2009 election.

The Silent Landscape

Hamid is an Iranian teenage boy whose sexuality brings him into conflict with his family's Muslim beliefs.

Poverty

A haughty acclaimed newly married fashion designer named Iraj is shown the door by his boss after the boss's son arrives at Iran to take over his father's company. Iraj reluctant to promulgate the loss of his job, starts using his savings, trying to conceal the truth from his naive wife. Having squandered all the money he had on trivial matters, he tells his wife about being axed & that's when the tables turn on him.

Everything Is Fine Here

25-year-old Arghavan lives with her parents in Tehran, and intends to marry her fiancé, Hesam. One day, her short stories win her a grant to attend a writing workshop in Germany. Soon before she is to leave, however, Arghavan is abducted and raped. In a strict, conservative society where young women are expected to be virgins before marriage, this is a social catastrophe. Plagued by gossip and finding little solace, Arghavan's life begins turning into a nightmare.

Green Ashes

A filmmaker named Hadi is sent to Croatia to complete his research for a film. Aziz, Hadi’s friend, gives him a cassette tape, a piece of image, and a half a piece of plaque in order to find a girl named Fatima. Alongside a Farsi-speaking Bosnian woman, Hanifa, Hadi begins his quest for Fatima.

Desert Dancer

Inspirational true story of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian, who risked his life for his dream to become a dancer despite a nationwide dancing ban.

Gold and Copper

A Tehran mullah-in-training struggles to take care of his ailing wife and their children in this profoundly moving melodrama. A film of near-universal appeal, it puts a human face on Iran's Muslim clergy with its unusual tale of a man forced by hardship to become a better husband and father. Seyed Reza has just moved with his family to Tehran so he can study the Koran, and he relies on his lovely wife Zahra to look after their two young children and weave the intricate rugs that earn them a living. But one evening Zahra collapses and is taken to the hospital, where she's diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Scarcely able to process the tragedy, Seyed is left to cook, change diapers, walk his daughter to school and take his toddler son with him to his classes, where peers and elders treat him with scorn. But Seyed eventually learns to cope, his prayers and devotional studies taking on deeper meaning as he attends to the hard nightly work of rug weaving, getting through with a heavy ...

Jalil

Jalil is 17-year-old boy living with his Iranian family in a suburb near Helsinki. Though he has lived in Finland all his life, it seems hard for him to find acceptance among the "native" Finns. At home he faces the opposite problem. His parents demand him to respect Iranian cultural traditions. Jalil is about one day in the life of a boy standing on the edge of two cultures. On this summer day big things are bound to culminate; religion, identity, love.

The Deer

An urban guerrilla, wounded after a bank robbery, seeks refuge with his childhood friend—only to discover that his friend has fallen into addiction. The guerrilla hides in his house and gradually begins to influence him, helping him regain his courage and strength. Eventually, he entrusts the stolen money to him…

Any Day Now

Bahman, Mahtab, Ramin and Donya Mehdipour are enjoying a perfect summer in a small Finnish town. Their routines are fractured by a negative decision on their application for asylum by the Finnish Immigration Service. But life must go on and the 13-year-old Ramin is about to enter an entirely new school, junior high. The Mehdipours use their last chance to appeal but continue their everyday lives, fuelled by their exceptionally positive outlook and attitude.

The Stoning of Soraya M.

In 1986 Iran, Sahebjam, whose car breaks down in a remote village, enters into a conversation with Zahra, who relays to him the story about her niece, Soraya, whose arranged marriage to an abusive tyrant ended in tragedy.

7 Months Pregnant

Revenge may have irreversible consequences.