The Circle (Dayereh, Iran-Italy-Switz, 2000) and Offside (Iran, 2006)

Jafar Panahi was fortunate, I think, to be on the jury of this year’s Cannes film festival as it made his incarceration in Iran high profile and newsworthy so probably led to his release. The fact he was also on hunger strike accentuated the situation. His ‘crime’ was, reportedly, planning to make a film about [...]

Persepolis (France, 2007)

Animation’s starting to get the ‘adult’ appreciation it deserves; as are graphic novels. Marjane Satrapi’s graphic autobiography forms the basis of this excellent film. If ever the political was embedded in the personal then it’s in lives that live through revolutions; the Iranian one in ’79 in this case. By focusing upon the travails of [...]

Ten (Iran-France, 2002)

Ten is terrific on both a formal level and in its content. Consisting of 23 hours of footage from two very small digital cameras attached to a car’s dashboard, edited down to 90 minutes, the film is anti-director; the mise en scene is the interior of the car and the passing landscape. Much of what [...]

At Five in the Afternoon (2003, Iran)

A film made in Afghanistan focusing on women has to be seen. However, a tad disappointed; found the repetition on shoes a bit tiresome. Possibly seeing it after Osama was the problem; but most films would pale in comparison with that. (DVD) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0363303/