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Movies (1979-1998)
THE GLASS AGENCY / AJANSE
(1998, Color, 100 mins)
Directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia
Abbas, a combatant of the imposed war who is now engaged
in farming, arrives in Tehran along with his wife for the medical treatment of a wound in his neck. At the bus terminal,
Abbas meets a wartime commander, Haj Kazem, who decides to keep Abbas company during his treatment. Medical tests reveal
the presence of tiny Shrapnel part near Abbas's artery. In view of the critical surgical operation that has to be carried
out, the doctors offer two recommendations. First, Abbas has to travel to a country where adequate medical facilities
are available for the hazardous operation. And second, Abbas must try not to get excited as that might cause the Shrapnel
part to be dislodged and move. He should try to laugh, even forcibly, in case he gets excited. To arrange for
Abbas trip aboard, everything is done in great haste. However, all this is concurrent with the arrival of the New Year,
and that creates a number of obstacles for wounded combatant's trip.
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THE PEAR TREE / DERAKHT-E GOLABI
(1998; 96 mins)
Narges & Nasrin are too little girls who meet each other in an Elementary School Party
and find out that they are twins and their parents were divorced. In this hilarious family comedy the two sister try every
single way to make their paremt get together again.
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THE LOVE SQUADRON / SKADRANE ESHGH
(1998, Color, 126 mins)
Directed by Saeed Hajimiri
At the height of the imposed war a squadron pesticide sprayer
planes from the ministry of agriculture, is commissioned to fly to Konarak border area in Baluchistan province to fight the
devastating locusts. Captain Farid Khosravi, who has been appointed the squadron commander, however, has other plans
in mind. He is planning to cross the border, and ultimately join his other in the United States. To carry out
his plan, Captain Khosravi decides to collaborate with the smugglers of antiques under the pretext of fighting the locusts,
while Maryam, the captain's unsuspecting wife, is also accompanying him.
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CHILDREN OF HEAVEN / BACHE HAYE ASEMAN
(1998, Color)
Directed by Majid Majidi
The story follows the relationship between an impoverished brother
and sister, Ali and Zahra, who are thrust into a difficult circumstance. They choose to solve their problem themselves, without
telling their parents, in their own unique way. What follows is a tender, moving, tale of compassion, determination and deep
family love. |
Watch the Clip
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AS A STRANGER / GHARIBANEH
(1998, Color, 100 mins)
Directed by Ahmad Amini
Behrokh Sabeti, a pharmacist, is selling her family property and
is planning to join his ailing parents who are living aboard. The luxurious car which she has left for sale with Bozorg, a
car agent, is seriously damages when the agent's assistant drives the car and has an accident. But Bozorg can not afford
to pay for the car repair, and is forced to accept Behrokh's strange proposal, i.e., marriage. All the same, a romantic
emotion gradually develops between them, which both of them try to hide for different reasons. Then Behrokh learns of
a secret which further brings the couple closer together. Nevertheless, their relation is doomed to end is separation.
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APPLE / SEEB
(1998, Color, 88 mins)
Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf
People in a Tehran neighborhood
write a letter to the Hygiene Organization and ask for help. An old beggar, who lives with his blind wife and two daughters,
in a house in the neighborhood, imprisons his daughters in a room in his absence, allowing them limited movement in the house,
when he is present. Representatives from the Hygiene Organization visit the house, and releases the two girls, name
Zahra and Masume. The real life event, which occurred last summer and was widely covered by the media, forms the basis
of "The Apple" which reviews the life story of two girls in a narrative documentary style. |
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THE MIRROR / AYNEH
Jafar Panahi, 1997; 95m
Just two years ago, Jafar Panahi enchanted international audiences with his remarkable debut film,
The White Balloon. In that film, a little girl who dreamed of goldfish wended her way through city streets and a series
of most enlightening encounters. THE MIRROR can be seen as Chapter Two in her odyssey, or perhaps Panahi's variation on a
poetic theme. Here, a child (Mina Mohammad Khani) waits in vain for her mother to pick her up after school. Whether she tries
to resolve the dilemma herself or asks for help from the adult world, this serious little girl confronts dead-ends. Finally,
Mina has had it! Piers Handling of the Toronto International Film Festival writes: "How she rebels and who she rebels against
is what turns this film into a masterpiece."
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LEILA
(1997; 110m)
Married
to a man she loves passionately, Leila (who provides the film's voiceover narration) is heartbroken to discover she can't
have children--though her husband doesn't believe that this will affect their happy lives together. But Leila's mother-in-law
so desires a grandson that she insists that her son take a second, fertile wife, and perversely, it is Leila who must "interview"
the candidates. Peter Keough writes that LEILA's "limpid performances [are] accented by unassumingly brilliant images--a single
pearl from a broken necklace against blue tiles, the rustle of a wedding gown on a staircase--[Mehrjui] transforms a cultural
anomaly into a universal tragedy." |
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THE MAY LADY / BANOU-YE ORDIBEHESHT
Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, 1997;
95m
In this fictional film diary, Iran's best-known female director (The
Blue-Veiled) takes on another taboo, combatting the assumption that a "single" woman should remains forever celibate.
Using voiceover narration, Bani-Etemad tells the story of Forough Kia*, a divorced documentary filmmaker, who refuses to surrender
to her son's strong resistance to a new man in her life: "Why should the gift of motherhood deprive me of another gift--love?"
Her hope is that life will imitate art, as she works to complete a documentary on the perfect mother. Critic Shahzad Rahmati
writes that THE MAY LADY is "a film in praise of love...indubitably the best, the most perfect, and the most mature work of
Rakhshan Bani-Etemad to date...." *Her name recalls Forough Farrokhzad, a gifted and brave Iranian poetess, who taught the
women of her time--through her life and her poetry--to stand up for themselves as independent souls.
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THE STRANGE SISTERS / KHAHARNE GHARIB
Kiyoumarth Pourahmad, 1995,
100m
In this fictional film diary, Iran's best-known female director (The
Blue-Veiled) takes on another taboo, combatting the assumption that a "single" woman should remains forever celibate.
Using voiceover na
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SARA
(1994; 102m)
A
powerful Iranian version of Ibsen's "A Doll's House": bank manager Hessam requires medical treatment in Switzerland and Sara
must cover her husband's expenses from what he believes is her inheritance. In fact she has borrowed the money, and for years,
she sneaks down to the basement nightly to create intricate embroidery, which she sells to repay her debt. Her marital happiness
is destroyed when blackmail reveals the truth to intolerant Hessam. Giving a multi-layered performance as Sara, Niki Karimi
shows a woman whose loving sacrifice results in a reappraisal of the significance of her life.
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THE BOOT / CHAKMEH
(1993, color, 60m)
Directed by Mohammad Ali Talebi
Samaneh's mother buys a pair of boots for her. She thinks they
are the most beautiful boots in the world, but one of the boots gets lost. In her search for finding the lost one, Samaneh
learns new meanings in life.
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THE TENANTS / EJAREH-NESHEENHA
(1992; 110m)
This barbed cinematic satire takes place in a claptrap apartment building in Tehran where the extremely
unharmonious relations between landlords and tenants are meant to reflect larger national realities. As a nasty realtor works
to evict the tenants from the disintegrating low-rise in order to sell it to German developers, the rentors band together
and start repairing the wreck. "The ensuing slapstick," writes Rita Kemley in the Washington Post, "affords a mostly
secular look at life in the Islamic republic....The actors, apparently disciples of Curly, Larry and Moe, give Westerners
an altogether different view of the Iranian Everyman."
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Watch the Clip |
AMARYLLIS / NARGES
(1992, color, 100m)
Directed by Rakhshan Bani Etemad
Nargess comes as a surprise mainly because of its exceptionally
honest look at characters who live outside strict Islamic law. A sympathetic treatment of a shabby gang of thieves, it is
also a sensitive study of two completely different women. In her fourth feature, director Bani-Etemad uses the gangster genre
to tell the tragic tale of a love triangle, giving this hackneyed plot a number of twists that completely turn it around.
She also pushes the grim Iranian censorship code to the limit, making her outsider characters believable and moving.
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THE NEXT MORNING / SOBHE ROOZE BA'D
(1992, color, 85m)
Directed by Kiyoumarth Poorahmad
Based on Family Comedy TV series The Stories of Majid
(Ghessehaye Majid), the story is about a boy from Isfahan called "Majid" who is very strong in literature but very weak in
math. He is always punished by his math teacher and the principal. Once the literature teacher moves to another school and
the principal starts to teach literature...
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HAMOON
(1990; 130m)
"Masterly
photography, precise editing, and a remarkable performance by Khosrow Shakibai in the leading role...." -- Houshang Golmakani,
Cinemaya
Mehrjui describes HAMOON's "hero" as a "typical Iranian intellectual, caught in an emotional crisis...an
embodiment of the collective consciousness of all those who are in crucial transition." During one day in the fraying life
of Hamid Hamoon, we discover his much-loved wife is trying to divorce him, he can't quite come to any conclusions in his dissertation
on the nature of love and faith, and neither flashbacks nor nightmares lend any clarity to his state of mind or soul. Hamoon
is contemporary man, spindrift in a cultural whirlpool of art, religion, technology, his head a jumble of Old Testament stories,
Kierkegaardian and Zen philosophy, folk wisdom, mysticism, abstract art, and more.
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Watch the Clip
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THE CITY OF MICE / SHAHRE MOOSHHA
(1984; 92m)
Directed by Marzieh Boroomand
Famous Iranian Family Movie about mice who have to immigrate because
of a wild cat. The mice defeat the cat and go their new home.
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THE SCHOOL WE WENT TO / MADRESEH-IE KE MIRAFTIM
(1980-89; 86m)
Kaveh Kamali goes to a school dominated by an authoritarian assistant principal who's
more interested in money than education for kids. When the smalltime autocrat shuts down a play the kids want to put on, trouble
ensues. With the encouragement of his literature instructor and an old librarian, Kaveh writes an article of protest for the
school newspaper, which escalates the principal's outrage and cruelty. | |
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Milla Jovovich
Birth Date: Wednesday, December 17, 1975 Birth Place: Kiev, Ukraine Nationality:
American Link: No official site yet
Milla Natasha Jovovich was born on December 17, 1975 in Kiev, Ukraine. Much of her first five years was spent travelling
back and forth between her father's medical studies in London and their home in Russia.
At age 5, Milla moved with her family to Sacramento, California. At age 11, Milla rose above this relentless torment to
begin her acting career. Her first movie, released in 1988, was Two Moon Junction. From that point on, Milla was flying high.
Upon her entry in the realm of modeling, the world was amazed by how beautiful and 11-year-old fashion model could be. Milla's
acting and modeling careers continued through her adolescence.
In 1997, Milla starred with Bruce Willis in Luc Besson's The Fifth Element. Her performance as Leeloo forced the world
to recognize her as the incredible actress that she is.
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