The Best Movies to Watch From Iran

Since we live in a society, interacting with authority is inescapable. Terrestrial Verses depict fairly mundane day-to-day interactions– getting a birth certificate, settling a traffic violation, or attending a job interview– but through nine vignettes framed with a static camera, aimed at a person trying to negotiate with someone more powerful just outside the frame, […]

A child’s death is a hard thing to face. The idea of a life cut so short is already painful enough, but when there’s a chance that it’s caused by something that you did, the guilt can be so overwhelming. This is what No Date, No Signature is all about. As coroner Dr. Kaveh Nariman […]

This incredible documentary is about the elusive Iranian artist Bahman Mohassess, whose work has the uniqueness of a Picasso or a Salvador Dalí. But unlike his European counterparts, most of Mohassess’ work has been destroyed. Some in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in Iran but most, interestingly, by the artist himself. After the revolution, […]

What does a filmmaker do when you’re banned from making movies? For their safety, they might move abroad or switch professions altogether. For director Jafar Panahi, it means doing things differently. Taxi was made in the titular vehicle, with a camera simply placed on the dashboard as Panahi poses as a driver. It’s a simple […]

Horror movies have always been creepier to me when they play on our fear of the “unknown” rather than gore. Under The Shadow does exactly that. The story is based around the relationship of a woman, Shideh, and her daughter, Dorsa, under the backdrop of the Iran-Iraq war. As widespread bombings shake the ground beneath […]

We’ve heard of films within a film, but it’s crazy how many layers Through the Olive Trees operates in. Writer-director Abbas Kiarostami completes his metanarrative journey in the Koker trilogy through a slice-of-life comedy about a couple in the periphery of the previous installment And Life Goes On. As the young man Hossein repeats his […]

Everything about This Is Not a Film revolves around state censorship. Documentarian Mojtaba Mirtahmasb records Iranian cinema giant Jafar Panahi’s life under house arrest, maneuvering through the legal loopholes on Panahi’s 20-year ban on filmmaking and screenwriting. Here Panahi describes one of his unmade films that was rejected by the Iranian ministry, creating makeshift sets […]

Life can easily get hectic in a moment. A hearing aid can get broken, debts can add up, a snafu can happen at work, and in the pursuit to fix all of it, life’s troubles make you forget who you hoped to become. This is what happens in The Song of Sparrows. It’s clear that […]

The Wind Will Carry Us depicts a city engineer whose visit in a Kurdish town draws curiosity from the locals. Understandably so, because they initially can’t make sense of what he’s doing. What is he doing in the cemetery? Why did he bring all these people? The documentary-like techniques director Abbas Kiarostami uses makes the […]