IRANIAN FILMS

It is about the most unlikely place you can think of that would be cranking out excellent movies. And yet, Iran, that backwater of Muslim fundamentalism and nuclear power wannabe, is that place! How these movies got made in that hidebound country is a mystery to ponder. 

A Separation (2011) won the American Oscar as best foreign film. While the plot is quite complicated, it is an astonishingly good look at another culture. It shows how messy domestic squabbles are everywhere, and it kindles a realization that these people are very much like us!

A Time For Drunken Horses (1999) is about the Kurdish people of Iran (and several other countries). The family makes a meager living smuggling goods into Iran. The little boy Madi is afflicted with dwarfism and is constantly ill. His only hope is an operation, far beyond the family’s meager means. But they try. The older children embark on a perilous smuggling trip, fraught with terrible weather and bandits. This is a great film.

In Offside (2006) the Iranian national soccer team is playing for the world cup in Tehran. Girls are fans too, but, girls are not allowed to attend the game, even wearing a burnoose and accompanied by a chaperone. Iranian teen-age girls are just as feisty and inventive as any, and they’re determined to see the game. The various tricks they use to get in, what happens when some of them get caught, and the interaction with the police and soldiers are both humorous and touching. Not surprisingly, you can’t see this one in Iran!

Baran (2001) is a most unusual love story. A goofy Iranian construction worker constantly makes fun of an Afghani refugee. Then he discovers that she is a woman, and a very pretty one at that. The director’s nice light touch serves the actors well. 

Marjane Satrapi is an Iranian girl who just wants to be a real person in the unusual Persepolis (2007). Done in black and white animation, it is a cautionary tale about political changes which aren’t always for the better, and growing up female in a culture that demeans women. This film is very dark, but worth the effort to stick with it.

Iran nominated Children of Heaven (1997) for an Oscar as best foreign film, and while it didn’t make the final cut, it is certainly worthy. A little boy’s careless mistake  causes the loss of his sister’s precious pink tennis shoes. He undertakes a seemingly impossible search for them through the crowded city. This is a real crowd-pleaser for all ages.

All of the movies in this article are available on DVD. Persepolis and Drunken Horses are for big people. The rest are fine for all ages.