Iranian Films

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s The Salesman

By Tom Carter, 13 February 2017

“Most of the film takes place inside an apartment,” Farhadi told one interviewer, “but once the film has ended, you feel like you’ve seen the whole city.”

The life and career of Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami

By David Walsh, 14 July 2016

The Iranian director will be best remembered and long honored for the series of feature films, including documentaries, that he made between 1987 and 1997.

Toronto International Film Festival 2013—Part 6

Disappointments, blind alleys and other problems

By David Walsh, 11 October 2013

This was the 20th year of covering the Toronto film festival, and the experience continues to be fascinating, illuminating and maddening in perhaps equal measure.

The political tone at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival

By Jordan Mattos, 14 May 2011

The recent Tribeca Film Festival screened some interesting works from Serbia, Hungary, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Korea, France and Romania in particular.

Toronto International Film Festival 2010—Part 5

What does it mean to take reality seriously?

By David Walsh, 14 October 2010

Films from Iran, China and Romania, including a conversation with Iranian filmmaker Rafi Pitts, director of The Hunter.

Jailed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi on hunger strike

By Richard Phillips, 24 May 2010

Acclaimed filmmaker Jafar Panahi has been jailed for more than two months in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.

No One Knows About Persian Cats: The struggle of young Iranian musicians

By Hiram Lee, 8 May 2010

Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi's latest film No One Knows About Persian Cats tells the story of underground musicians in Tehran who struggle to make their music, which has been outlawed in the country.

David Walsh looks at Taste of Cherry, a new film from Iran

Despair, hope, life

By David Walsh, 11 April 1998

Film review: Taste of Cherry, written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami