About this product: Majid Majidi, whose delightful Children of Heaven became the first Iranian film ever nominated for an Oscar, returns to the subject of children for this lush and lovely--if contrived--melodrama. A spirited blind boy with a passion for learning and life arrives home for a three-month break. He's loved by his giggly little sisters and adored by his gentle granny, but his widowed, self-pitying father sees him as a burden and is determined to foist him off on someone else before he remarries--specifically, a kindly blind carpenter who welcomes the boy with all his heart. Majidi is at his best exploring the texture of the boy's world--little hands feeling their way through a garden, the sounds of metal pencils punching out Braille pages, the shuffle of fingers on paper--and his imagery is delicate and lush. The story descends into scripted tragedy and a contrived, action-packed climax (unusual for a cinema known for its restraint), and the emotional tenor turns sentimental and cloying, but Majidi turns it all around with an astounding, heartbreakingly powerful final image. If there is one thing many Iranian films have in common, it's an unerring sense of how to end a film. This is one of the most affecting ever: beautiful, moving, simple, a glowing moment that crystallizes the entire movie. --Sean Axmaker
About this product: A DVD series cleverly created to engage children in learning and having fun. Come join in as Hooshi and friends introduce 7 primary colors in Persian. Children are encouraged to participate in various ways while playful music keeps them dancing and entertained.
About this product: The life and trials of legendary poet, mathmetician, astronomer and warrior Omar Khayyam is told in this epic adventure praised by many of the nation's top film critics. Shot in English, this film transports the viewer to 11th century Persia, and delves into the roots of the forming Islam philosophy, and the split between pacifist Muslims and jihadists that resonates to this day. Featuring stunning locations and epic battles, set against a story of romance and intellectual discovery, "THE KEEPER" will appeal to broad audiences, especially fans of "Gladiator", "Braveheart" or "Kingdom of Heaven."
About this product: In a time when Islam is under tremendous attack from within and without, A JIHAD FOR LOVE is a daring documentary filmed in twelve countries and nine languages. Muslim gay filmmaker Parvez Sharma has gone where the silence is loudest, filming with great risk in nations where government permission to make this film was not an option.
A JIHAD FOR LOVE is the world's first feature documentary to explore the complex global intersections between Islam and homosexuality. Parvez enters the many worlds of Islam by illuminating multiple stories as diverse as Islam itself. The film travels a wide geographic arc presenting us lives from India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa and France. Always filming in secret and as a Muslim, Parvez makes the film from within the faith, depicting Islam with the same respect that the film's characters show for it.
About this product: In Iran, capital punishment is carried out according to Islamic law, which gives the family of the victim ownership of the offender's life. Day Break, based on a compilation of true stories and shot inside Tehran s century-old prison, revolves around the imminent execution of Mansour, a man found guilty of murder. When the family of the victim repeatedly fails to show up on the appointed day, Mansours execution is postponed again and again. Stuck inside the purgatory of his own mind, he waits as time passes on without him, caught between life and death, retribution and forgiveness.
About this product: Border Café is the "masterful, elegant" (Variety) film by Kambozia Partovi that examines the problems facing women in contemporary Iranian society. Partovi, one of Iran's most accomplished screenwriters, penned the screenplay for The Circle, Iran's 2007 Oscar submission.
Set near Iran's border with Turkey, a young widow takes over her late husband's truck stop café, keeping hidden in the kitchen so as not to cause a scandal in Iran's conservative society. But her brother-in-law, out of familial obligation, wants to take her as a wife and also take over the café. Meanwhile a Greek trucker who is a frequent café customer is slowly entranced-- at first by her sublime cooking ability, and then by her.
About this product: Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami won the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival for this contemplative film about a Muslim, Mr. Badi (Homayon Ershadi), who drives around the barren hills outside Tehran, flagging down passersby and offering good money for a simple job that he's hesitant to explain. He's planning his suicide and seeks someone to perform something of a symbolic eulogy. Most of his subjects refuse (personal morality aside, suicide is forbidden to Muslims), but he finds an elderly taxidermist (Abdolrahman Bagheri) who agrees only because he needs the money for an ill child. Yet the old man gently pleads with him to choose life, to embrace the joys of earthly existence, to remember the taste of cherries. Though initially greeted with critical acclaim, A Taste of Cherry received poor distribution in the U.S. The meandering, deliberately paced drama is composed of long conversations and long silences, and the camera is locked in the car for entire sequences, staring at the protagonists in still closeups with the dusty landscape rolling past the windows of the Land Rover in the background. Kiarostami's film is not for everyone, but if you can embrace the quiet power and grace of his deceptively simple style, the film becomes a remarkably rich celebration of human dignity and resilience. By the astonishing conclusion we can see past Badi's age-etched face to the soul peering out from behind his sad eyes. --Sean Axmaker
About this product: in 1973, I met a man in the desert, a bricklayer, named YAGHMA. He was one of the rare talents whose poetry verses were as moving and powerful as those of traditionaly educated poets, even though he could not read and write till the age of 40. I lived with him for two weeks in remote areas of Naishabour desert, his home. No doubt YAGHMA was a unique human being, I learned a lot from him. I could not resist his understanding of life and had to make a film of his story.
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About this product: Coming off the huge box office success of Cease-Fire, acclaimed Iranian director Tahmineh Milani wrote and directed this light-hearted family drama. Shahab Hosseini offers an award-winning performance as movie star Kurosh Zand, who is an egotistical, spoiled celebrity. When little Raha comes forward and claims to be his long-lost daughter from a brief affair, Zand allows her to live with him until the results of the paternity test are known. Raha soon brings out the best in Zand, and his meaningless lifestyle begins to change for the better. Newcomer Fataneh Malek-Mohammadi costars as the young girl who needs a father in her life.
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