Iranian Most Valuable Documentaries
These documentaries are made in Iran or they are about Iran
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- DirectorForugh FarrokhzadStarsForugh FarrokhzadEbrahim GolestanHossein MansouriSet in a leper colony in the north of Iran, The House is Black juxtaposes "ugliness", of which there is much in the world as stated in the opening scenes, with religion and gratitude.
- DirectorMojtaba MirtahmasbJafar PanahiStarsJafar PanahiIgiMrs. GheiratIt's been months since Jafar Panahi, stuck in jail, has been awaiting a verdict by the appeals court. By depicting a day in his life, Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb try to portray the deprivations looming in contemporary Iranian cinema.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBabak AhmadpoorFarhang AkhavanMohammad Reza NematzadehIn this documentary, Kiarostami asks a number of students about their school homework. The answers of some children shows the darker side of this method of education.
- DirectorBehrouz BoochaniArash Kamali SarvestaniStarsBehrouz BoochaniChauka? An exotic punctual bird decorating a proud nation's flag or a terrifying solitary prison? Is it part of the identity of a tropical paradise or just an embarrassment for a civilized country in 21th century? Someone is curious to find it out.
- DirectorMehrdad OskoueiTeenage girls consigned to the Iranian "Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre" discuss their troubled lives and reveal what brought them there.
- DirectorMahdieh zare ZardinyStarsStephane CornicardStephan ErdmanDarren StreetAn Iranian Consul risks his life to save many lives during the WWII in France. He creatively made up a new description of 'Djoguoten' for Iranian Jews to argue with German officials to exempt them from the German Racial Policy.
- DirectorTill SchauderStarsShahryar AhadiZari AhadiLeili BazarganThis rap-punk-rock documentary tells the story of Iranian musician Shahin Najafi who is forced into hiding after hardline clerics issue a fatwa for his death, incensed by a rap song that focuses on the oppression of women and human rights abuses. Shahin's frantic escape leads to an impossible romance when he falls in love with the granddaughter of the first Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Their backgrounds make their relationship a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.
- DirectorBobak KalhorStarsAmir Aslan AfsharRobert ArmaoJerry BerlinUncover the mystery of the last Shah of Iran's exile from his country during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, his illness, misdiagnosis, maltreatment and eventual death, and its impact on the Middle East, United States and the world.
- DirectorRokhsareh GhaemmaghamiStarsSonita AlizadehLatifah AlizadehFadia AlizadehAfter her family attempts to sell her into marriage, a young Afghan refugee in Iran channels her frustrations and seizes her destiny through music. Grabbing the mic, she spits fiery rhymes in the face of oppressive traditions.
- DirectorSeyyed Vahid HosseiniStarsHossein AlizadehBijan KamkarAli Akbar ShekarchiThis documentary is about the vicissitudinous story of Iranian music between 1979-1989. The years just after 1979 Revolution through the end of Iran-Iraq war. The narrative of restrictions and obstacles told by musicians, composers and state authorities. Confrontation of music and politics. Simultaneous narration of two stories: the story of young people who sacrificed their lives for their homeland, and the story of musicians who on one hand entered the battle fields by their own language and on the other hand kept Iranian music alive and thriving. And the winner of these two battle fields is Iran and Iranian music, of course.
- DirectorKim LonginottoZiba Mir-HosseiniA documentary about real divorce cases in Iran's tribunals.
- DirectorMitra FarahaniStarsBahman MohassesA documentary on provocative artist Bahman Mohassess, the so-called "Persian Picasso," whose acclaimed paintings and sculptures dominated pre-revolutionary Iran.
- DirectorMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackStarsMerian C. CooperErnest B. SchoedsackMarguerite HarrisonThe struggles of a hardscrabble Iranian nomadic tribe as they journey through bleak country to reach the grasslands that will save their livestock.
- DirectorSusanne Regina MeuresStarsAnoosh RakizadeArash ShadramPeyman Navidi NahandTwo DJ's in Tehran are battling to play the music they love and set up dance parties. Local regime does not look well at harbingers of western culture of decay so the protagonists need to do big decisions.
- DirectorSayyed Mahdi KarbasiReza SadeghiStarsMohammad Saeed JabbariSiamak NamaziTrita ParsiA young documentary filmmaker creates a Telegram Channel named "Shabnaameh" and publish some US government activities in Iran. These activities were done in order to execute "Change Project" in Iran.
- DirectorTill SchauderStarsKevin SheppardEunice SheppardLeah SheppardA documentary that follows one year in the life of American pro basketball player Kevin Sheppard, who signed on to play for the upstart Iranian Super League team A.S. Shiraz.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsAbbas KiarostamiMania AkbariDocumentary where Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami reflects on his own film-making techniques, drawing from his own films - and Ten (2002) in particular.
- DirectorArash T. RiahiArman T. RiahiStarsAndy BichlbaumReverend BillyMike BonannoA documentary about modern and creative forms of non-violent protest and civil disobedience.
- DirectorParviz KimiaviStarsDarvish Khan EsfandiarpoorDarvish Khan a deaf and mute man who is a shepherd lives with his family in the desert. One day when sleeping in the desert he has a strange dream. When awake he finds a stone and carry it home and hangs it on a tree. Little by little he finds more stones carry them and hanging them on the trees until his garden of stones is becomes famous absorbing people from all around.
- DirectorParviz KimiaviStarsMohammad Jazayeri TabasAgha Seyed ali Mirza SajadiAn old hermit lives in a slum and wants to teach the alphabet to the children regularly go there to play. What makes the hermit happiest however, is when he comes to the letter P (for "Pedarsag", or "Puppy"). When a child proposes he use the word "Pelican" instead, the hermit goes to the nearby park looking for this animal he has never heard of.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsMohammad DadrasA concealed camera follows a group of first graders during their day at school.
- DirectorAbdul Latif SalazarStarsDariush ArjmandMitra HajjarGhorban NajafiExploring the life and impact of the greatest spiritual and legal philosopher in Islamic history, this film examines Ghazali's existential crisis of faith that arose from his rejection of religious dogmatism, and reveals profound parallels with our own times. Ghazali became known as the Proof of Islam and his path of love and spiritual excellence overcame the pitfalls of the organised religion of his day. His path was largely abandoned by early 20th century Muslim reformers for the more strident and less tolerant school of Ibn Taymiyya. Combining drama with documentary, this film argues that Ghazali's Islam is the antidote for today's terror.
- DirectorAndre LarssonShamim BerkehStarsKristina PalténThe 45-year old Swedish woman, Kristina Paltén, ran across Iran to challenge her own prejudices against a culture and people she knew little about. She felt the very human need to trust in people.
- DirectorReza AllamehzadehExposing the Islamic regime's taboo on followers of the Baha'i faith.
- DirectorAlbert LamorisseStarsManouchehr AnvarA tour of Iran filmed from a helicopter.
- DirectorMaryam GoormaghtighStarsArashAshkanHosseinAfter five years of study in Paris, Arash hasn't adapted to French life and decides to return home to Iran. Hoping to change his mind, two friends drag him away on a final trip across France.
- DirectorBehruz AfkhamiRakhshan BanietemadBahram BeyzaieStarsRamzali DadvarSadegh DamyarHossein EskandariPersian Carpet is an omnibus film produced by Iran's National Carpet Center and Farabi Cinema Foundation where 15 renowned Iranian directors contributed films on the subject of Persian carpet. Carpets are the reflection of the cultural and historical identity of Iran.
- DirectorBerit MadsenStarsSepideh HooshyarSedigheh HooshyarAsghar KabiriSepideh wants to become an astronaut. She spends her nights exploring the secrets of the universe, while her family will do anything to keep her on the ground. The expectations for a young Iranian woman are very different from Sepideh's ambitions, and her plans to go to university are in danger. But Sepideh holds on to her dream! She takes up the fight and teams up with the world's first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari.
- DirectorSam KhozeStarsBehrouz VossoughiShohreh AghdashlooGoogoosh
- DirectorNahid PerssonStarsFarah PahlaviNahid PerssonZinat S. LloydFilmmaker and Iranian exile Nahid Persson Sarvestani talks with the widow of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the late Shah of Iran, who was overthrown in 1979.
- DirectorPejman AkbarzadehStarsPejman AkbarzadehAndranikManouchehr Bibiyan100-min. documentary film about the life and career of legendary Persian singer HAYEDEH (1942-1990), made by the exiled musician and journalist Pejman Akbarzadeh. "Hayedeh Legendary Persian Diva" contains an extensive review of the singer's artistic activities from the beginning in late 1960s at Radio Tehran to the end in 1990 in California. The documentary looks at Hayedeh's career against the backdrop of political and social upheaval in Persia [Iran] as the nation went from monarchy to revolution to protracted war that forced many of its best and brightest into exile. The film was nominated as the "best documentay" at Noor Film Festival in Los Angeles and cited as a "Must See Film" in Dutch weekly Elsevier. The film includes rare footages and exclusive interviews with the main figures of the singer's career such as Farid Zoland, Andranik, Sadegh Nojouki and the last queen of Persia Farah Diba.
- DirectorAbbas SendiIn outskirts of Rasht city in Iran, a woman has established a shelter for curing and supporting wild and domestic animals. She has done this with the help of her family and friends.
- DirectorParviz KimiaviStarsDarvish Khan EsfandiarpoorMore than two decades after making his highly acclaimed film, The Garden of Stones, the director, Parviz Kimiavi once more turns his camera to the deaf and mute shepherd and his arcane collection. Darvish Khan is now an aged man who still takes after the garden of Stones set up over so many years. The film charts the life of Darvish Khan with his son and daughter-in-law and the issues they had to tackle with including the impending drought. Although living with his family, the old man still seems to dwell in his unique and mysterious world...
- DirectorIman TahsinNomads are one of the richest culture and is considered as one of the most ancient lifestyles in the world. The main aspect of nomadism is domestic animals and the surrounding nature. There is a variety of nomadic tribes in Iran. It is believed that a great dead of the Iranian population consisted of nomads in Achamenian area. Bakhtiari tribe is one of the biggest and most important of these which is dispersed across as various tribes and groups the skirts of the "Zagros" and along the river "Karoon". The tribe "1030" (Hezarsi) is considered as one of the major Cheharlang of Bakhtiari. They are settled in the skirts of Zagroses situated in the southern part of the province "Loristan". They are half-nomad since they live in their village for six months and as the hot season starts they move to skirts in search of green grass.
- DirectorTanaz EshaghianAn intimate and unflinching look at life in Iran, seen through the lens of those living at its fringes, 'Be Like Others' is a provocative look at a generation of young Iranian men choosing to undergo sex change surgery.
- DirectorFateme GoshehStarsFaramarz GoshehFateme GoshehSiavash GoshehAn Iranian artist and women's rights activist falls for a traditional Mulsim man and over seven years, films herself in the midst of a difficult love affair.
- DirectorNahid PerssonStarsNahid PerssonA documentary that follows two young women raising children and supporting drug habits through prostitution in a country ruled by fundamentalists.
- DirectorAref MohammadiStarsAttaollah SafaviMehrali MianjiAkhtar SafaviThis is a true story of Dr. Ata Safavi, a retired urologist who currently lives in Toronto. In 1947. at the age of 20, Safavi, a leftist activist in Iran was threatened by (Mohammad Reza) Shah's agents with exile to a remote town in south of Iran. Thus, he decided to escape to the Soviet Union, envisioned by many Iranians as the Communists' paradise. For his attempted illegal entry into the soviet union, he was immediately captured and sentenced to two years in prison, where he was obliged to work in a brick works factory. Later KGB, agents took him for additional investigations and convicted him for espionage for imperialism to spend twenty five years in a prison in Magadan, a town located in northeastern Russia and a part of Siberia, While most of his three thousands fellow prisoners died or committed suicide, Ata decided to fight for his right to live. This is the story of his best years spent in the most inhuman circumstances.
- DirectorAyat NajafiStarsImed AlibiÉlise CaronJeanne CherhalIn Iran, since the 1979 Islamic revolution, women are no longer allowed to sing in public as soloists - at least in front of men. Defying censorship and taboos, the young composer Sara Najafi is determined to organize an official concert for solo female singers. In order to support their fight, Sara and her friends invite three French female singers, Elise Caron, Jeanne Cherhal and Emel Mathlouthi, to join them in Tehran and collaborate on their musical project, re-opening a musical bridge between Europe and Iran. Are they going to succeed and finally be gathered in Tehran, sing together, on stage and without restrictions, and to open a door towards a new freedom of women in Iran ?
- DirectorHesam EslamiSix years in the life of an adolescent crime gang that breaks into cars in the streets of Tehran.
- DirectorAhang BashiStarsMehmood BakshiAfrodite BashiAhang BashiJust when her career is at its peak, the filmmaker Ahang Bashi falls into a deep hole of panic disorder and depression. With the camera as her companion, Ahang explores anxiety's vertiginous world of both darkness and hope. The film depicts her worst moments as well as the most loving gestures from the surroundings. It also takes us back in time, to her escape to Sweden and to the little girl who didn't understand.
- DirectorDavid AssmannAyat NajafiStarsNiloofar BasirNarmila FathiSanna El-AghaAn amateur female soccer team from Berlin goes on a nerve-wracking journey trying to carry out the first female soccer match in the history of Iran.
- DirectorHossein ShamaghdariThe sexual revolution has been occurred in the West many years ago. Today it is going to happen in Iran
- DirectorYasmine AshaThe day on which spring season starts brings nostalgic feelings to Iranians abroad. It is a national festival that dates back to ancient Persia. This two-week long festival, called 'Norooz' (meaning 'New Day') is more than just a New Year celebration. It is also the celebration of new life, rebirth and hope. In Iran, no religious holiday has ever managed to prevail over Norooz in popularity. Norooz celebrations originate from the worshiping traditions of a season in which nature comes to life again and the season of ice, bitter weather and scarcity vanishes. Based on the tradition of putting seven edible objects on the traditional 'Haft-Sin' table during the celebration and their respective symbolic meanings, Iranians honor and celebrate the return of Spring. This documentary shows a depiction of Iranians, their motivation and conduct of keeping their culture alive in the Netherlands. We follow various characters and their arrangements of this traditional and extraordinary festival in the Iranian culture. The focus is on the way Iranians try to hold on to remains of the ancient Persian culture and how celebrating Norooz more or less contributes to the maintenance of their Iranian identity in exile.
- DirectorMaziar BahariStarsHaleh AnvariSaeed HanaeiRoya KarimiThe real story of Saeed Hanaei, an Iranian religious serial killer who live in Mashhad.
- DirectorMehran TamadonStarsMehran TamadonAn atheist, Iranian filmmaker Mehran Tamadon managed to convince four mullahs, all believers in the Islamic Republic of Iran, to come and stay with him for two days and engage in discussion. In this confined space, daily life is combined with debate, an unremitting demonstration of the problematic issue of how to live together, when each side's understanding of the world is so contrary?
- DirectorMoslem MansouriStarsSimin BehbahaniBahram BeyzaieIran DarroudiA documentary about the most important modern Iranian poet and intellectual icon.
- DirectorMakan AshooriIn December 2014, Captain Heidar Jedgal with his 17 sailors who were freed from Somali Pirates recently went back to the Indian Ocean. In this movie, the daily lives of these sailors will be explored, and will allow the audience to see the experiences and events that sailors in the Indian Ocean face every day. This will show the battle of human being with environment and nature with ancient methods to be alive, a very difficult fight, a holy and old combat by dominating the fears, dreads, and pains. The battle of human with himself.
- DirectorArsalan BaraheniExilic Trilogy features three half hour films called Light and Sound, Frame and Wall, and Alchemy and Dust. The film is a poetic, mystical, biographical and musical arthouse trilogy with political, social, psychological, and philosophical manifestations about three influential and legendary Iranian artists who were forced into exile after the Iranian revolution and currently live in Toronto, Canada.
- DirectorMehdi NoormohammadiA depiction of Iranian squirrel sheltered in oaks, and this small gnawer challenges for life. In this documentary the way of life of Iranian squirrel has been studying. The forests of oaks located in Ilam Province are shelters for this little animal. There are many dangers by human beings during its life such as it may be haunted or its living place may be destroyed.
- DirectorReza AllamehzadehStarsAzar AlkananGolnarRoxaneA tale of two mothers and daughters, one imaginary (Roya and Darya), the other real (Azar and Nina) sharing a cell in prison. Roya is a young sketch artist who was arrested on the day her exhibit was to open in Tehran. And Azar is a young mother incarcerated with her young daughter Nina in Evin prison. The stuff of the film's narrative is a combination of reality and imagination; it uses Roya's designs (of infant Nina's first steps in prison to her own appearance before the Death Committee) to describe the shocking story of political prisoners killed by Khomeini's Fatwa in 1988, and buried in unmarked mass graves in Khavaran. Does Darya, the imaginary daughter of Roya, get the chance to fulfill her mother's wishes by finding Nina and retrieving the lost sketches of her own childhood in prison?
- DirectorKeywan KarimiStarsSalman RazaviFarahnaz SharifiThe formation of a city named Tehran goes back to 200 years ago. Before that it was a small village resting between surrounding mountains. Many political and social events have happened in this course of time that all have left their trace on the walls of this city. Nevertheless, since the inception of the Islamic revolution in 1979 to now, written slogans on the walls and murals have experienced different forms and concepts. These events range from Revolution, Iran-Iraq war, economic reconstruction period to Reform and 2009 uprising.
- DirectorMasoud RaoufStarsNiousha FarahiReza GahfariShirin GhanbariIn 1992, a young Iranian student hanged himself on the outskirts of a small Ontario town. Having escaped the Ayatollah's regime and found a new home in Canada, he could not escape his past. In THE TREE THAT REMEMBERS, Masoud Raouf documents the experiences of Iranian-Canadians, former political prisoners like himself, who were active in the Iranian democratic movement and continue to struggle with the past.
- DirectorHamid RahmanianThe fringes of Iranian society can be a lonely place, especially if you are a teenage girl with few resources to fall back on. Finding Home follows four girls striving to pull themselves out of the margins by attending a one-of-kind rehabilitation center in uptown Tehran. Forget about the Iran that you've seen before. With a virtually invisible camera, the girls of Finding Home take us on a never-before-seen tour of the underclass of Iran with their brave and defiant stories: Samira struggles to overcome forced drug addiction; Mitra harnesses abandonment into her creative writing; Sussan teeters on a dangerous ledge after years of sexual abuse; and Nazila burgeons out of her hatred with her blazing rap music. This groundbreaking documentary reflects a side of Iran few have access to or paid attention to: a society lost to its traditions with nothing meaningful to replace them and a group of courageous women working to instill a sense of empowerment and hope into the minds and lives of otherwise discarded teenage girls.
- DirectorMehrdad OskoueiSet in a tight-knit, extremely conservative island community off the Southern coast of Iran where all women wear burkas, this film begins as an investigation into the suicide of a woman named Samireh. Her husband callously says that while he cares about the lives of his kids, women's lives are cheap. However, the women Oskouei interviews - many of whom were married off at age 12 or 13 - stand up for themselves and discuss their difficult existences. Oskouei relies mostly on close-up or medium-shot interviews, and as usual, displays his gift for framing people dynamically in tight spaces.
- DirectorKhashayar MostafaviNaser as Political analyst and Ali as Journalist wants to make film about Russo-Iranian relations and review that's history. Then they traveled to the north of Iran near coasts of Caspian Sea and in five step discuss from Qajar's Era to Current times. They have Shown that Russians have adopted three different strategies toward Iran during history. They sought direct domination over Iran once. Then, they supported communist revolution in Iran. And finally they favored the disintegration of Iran. Gradually, Naser and Ali's efforts to making documentary film cause to making contact with video camera. Such that they were sitting in front of camera in separate rooms and talk about their personal life, memories, wishes, anxieties and their problems.
- DirectorSepideh FarsiSepideh Farsi left Tehran in her teens, yet has always remained under the spell of Iran's lively capital. In 'Tehran Without Permission', Farsi creates a collage-style portrait of a city in flux. Via a mixture of characters and cityscapes, Farsi's covert filming reveals a city beset with social and political tensions, yet held aloft by the indomitable spirit and character of its population. Featuring a mixture of footage around the capital with more in-depth essays dealing with diverse aspects of life in contemporary Iran, this is a compelling account of a city in transition
- DirectorBahman MaghsoudlouStarsShohreh AghdashlooKatayun Amir EbrahimiMary ApickAn examination of the work and lives of actresses in the Iranian film industry prior to the 1979 revolution, featuring myriad interviews and rare film clips.
- DirectorMostafa Rezvani
- DirectorMehrdad OskoueiFollowing his harrowing documentary, It's Always Late for Freedom, director Mehrdad Oskouei continues his exploration of a male juvenile detention facility near Tehran. Last Days of Winter follows these young men in the days leading up to the Iranian New Year, as they take stock of their lives.
- DirectorMahnaz AfzaliVarious types of women, including prostitutes and vagrants, are interviewed as they hang out or seek refuge in a ladies' room beside a park in Teheran.
- DirectorIman BehrouziAn Iranian filmmaker wants to move to Germany. There is a problem, though. He has to leave his girlfriend behind. Forced to choose between love and ambitions, he plans to make a film of their first date...
- DirectorMohsen AbdolvahabThe life of Saideh Ghods changed completely when her two-year-old daughter Kiana was diagnosed with cancer. As she confronted her daughter's suffering, she became aware of the suffering of so many impoverished families in hospital corridors around the country who were dealing with children afflicted by cancer. When, due to the doctors' timely diagnosis, Kiana was on the path to a full recovery, Saideh Ghods resolved to prevent the unnecessary deaths of children with cancer caused by lack of access to therapeutic facilities or insufficient financial resources. Ghods founded MAHAK over 25 years ago. It quickly gained fame and support throughout Iran. Today it is one of the most highly functioning and trusted charities in the country. Countless children have been helped and saved. A few years after founding MAHAK, Ghods, along with a group of Iranian philanthropists, established a fully equipped hospital in Tehran that specializes in treating children with cancer.
- DirectorNasser TaghvaiStarsAhmad ShamluThis documentary shows the Zaar tradition in Bandar Lengeh in south of Iran. It is kind of local dancing and singing to exorcist the Jinn from people who believe to be possessed by evil.