Panahi’s Cannes Palme d’Or-winning cinema of courageous resistance sees a man encountering someone he believes was his former prison torturer in this picture of genres that is tonally masterfully juggled, exploring themes of cycles of violence and circles of victimhood in Iran.
The gun of a high-ranking civil servant seems to have vanished in his home, as tensions heighten within his family (and outside in the streets of Tehran caused by the Mahsa Amini protests) in Rasoulof’s devastating but also galvanising work about the elusiveness of truth and the abuse of power.
This Panahi-Kiarostami collab is an edgier though not always engaging part-‘thriller’, part-social critique about personal humiliation and vendetta as a delivery man is constantly reminded of his working-class status.
Powerful when it needs to be, this humanist drama centers not on politics but the tragedies that befall children caught in the midst of war.
Panahi’s fourth feature since his house arrest is familiar in terms of his usual mode of cinematic address, but this time he paints a desolate picture of patriarchy rearing its ugly head amid some quiet moments of poetic beauty.
Panahi is literally in the driver seat, as he charts a new course for Iranian cinema (of the oppressed) in this powerful docu-drama that is as defiant as any in his oeuvre.
A political statement of intent by Panahi – one that is imbued with a sense of loss and frustration, yet shines brightly as a courageous beacon of hope for change.
This Venice Golden Lion winner is a powerful treatise on the plight of women in Iran, told through a refreshing bead-like narrative and shot in neorealist style.
Naderi’s early social realist work is raw and boisterous, as a boy is handed an innocuous musical instrument that becomes a tool of power and exploitation towards his gang of village friends.
This award-winning debut feature from Sundance is an empathetic take on the anxieties over identity and belonging as Afghan refugees hope to start a new life in Iran.
Eternality Tan 