I always gather as much information as I can about the countries I travel to. I read travel articles, books and view photos of other travelers and writers. When I am in the country, I ask local people about what their favorite movies and directors are and try to buy DVDs of recommended movies and directors. After my travel to Iran in May, I discovered this interesting Iranian movie which I wanted to share with you cause it shows the alternative life and music of Iran.
No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009)
Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi made a pleasant movie about Iranian underground music bands. Except a few characters all musicians in the movie are well known and popular in Iran. I suggest you listen to the soundtrack of the movie that is very mesmerizing. It is worth watching and getting to know more about Iranian younger generation and their significant exertions.
These are some other beautiful Iranian movies that I watched over the years :
Poverty, two siblings and a pair of shoes. The adventure of searching for a pair of shoes in the city by an elder brother who lost his sister’s shoes. The movie was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1999. After watching this movie you will question your consumption habits.
A small girl with one arm in plaster who can’t find her mother at their regular meeting place after school. She starts to search for her home. The director Jafar Panahi won the Golden Tulip of Istanbul Film Festival in 1998 for this movie.
One of the important director of Iranian cinema, Abbas Kiarostami won Cannes Palme d’Or in 1997 with this film that tells the story of a man who is searching for someone who will bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
Again a poetic movie from Abbas Kiarostami. Why ? The movie gets its name from one of the poems of the famous poet , Forough Farrokhzad. A group of journalists and engineers go to a Kurdish village for making a documentary movie. There are quotes from Forough Farrokhzad and Omar Khayyam in the movie.
Bahman Ghobadi who won Golden Camera and Fipresci prizes in Cannes Film Festival with his movie “A Time for Drunken Horses” made a heartbreaking war movie that got 23 prizes. And it tells the story of a group of children who live in a refugee camp in the border of Turkey-Iraq and collect mines on the eve of the U.S. invasion of the Iraq.
In 1986 a journalist had a car accident and arrived in an outlying village in Iran. Zahra tells him secretly the story of her niece, Soraya who would be stoned the next morning. The movie is an adaptation of a real event from the book La Femme Lapidee that is written by French journalist Freidoune Sahebjam in 1990.
Abbas Kiarostami made a movie which has a Cannes nomination and prize. A British writer and a French woman walk on the streets of Tuscany and query each other with deeper questions.
Director Asghar Farhadi tells us a separation story in a very simple and impressive way and keeps the audience in curiosity. The movie received a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2012 and other 85 prizes.
An Iranian man comes back to Paris to meet his French wife who has started a new relationship and wants a divorce. The woman’s daughter opposes her mother’s new relationship. Will they start up a new life despite all of the confrontations ? Asghar Farhadi’s movie was nominated for Golden Globe Best Foreign Film and received 15 prizes.
I read and listen to so much about Iran and I know that is not a scary place. Iran has a grand culture and history worth reading. I suggest you watch some of these movies to get your own opinions about Iran. You will see it is not at all like it is portrayed.
Wish you a life full of movies.