For forty years, Esfandiar has been unconcernedly preparing corpses for the journey to their final resting place. One day, whilst preparing a burial service, he's taken ill. Might he too be mortal?
An experimental short film that evokes moments in the life of a man recreated through the magic of memory. Made from documents from various sources, this film is composed of several scenes: the stages of the day and of life between joy and carefree youth, the cruelty of the working world, the horror of war. The final result is put into perspective with the birth of a child, perpetuating the cycle of life.
A journalist descends into the dark underbelly of the Iranian holy city of Mashhad as she investigates the serial killings of sex workers by the so called "Spider Killer", who believes he is cleansing the streets of sinners.
Amal Taheri is the youngest daughter of a broken family. Seven years ago, Amal witnessed a domestic disturbance causing the imprisonment of her brother, Mo, and the abandonment of her father, Borna. Now, after his parole, Amal and her anxious mother, Raniya, attempt to welcome Mo back home. However, during Mo’s homecoming dinner, demons between each of the Taheri’s suddenly resurface. With tensions riding high, Amal must bridge the insurmountable gaps between her family members, all while wrestling with a secret that could shatter her familial bonds, forever.
A woman attempts to obtain the consent of the victim's family to release her husband from the death penalty, meanwhile, the husband is suffering from brain death.
After seven years in prison, a female student in Tehran is hanged for murder. She had acted in self-defence against a rapist. For a pardon, she would have had to retract her testimony. This moving film reopens the case.
An unassuming mechanic is reminded of his time in an Iranian prison when he encounters a man he suspects to be his sadistic jailhouse captor.
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural Kurdish village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
Five psychological thrilling tales about the emotions that can destroy our souls: despair, temptation, guilt, doubt and anger. Which one has the worst consequence?
Golsa is a 16-year-old girl living with her family in a small town near Tehran. She spends most of her time hanging out with a group of friends. One day the group decide on a course of action the consequences of which will have unexpected results and turn their little bit of fun into something far more complicated.
16-year-old Hormoz is consoled by the prospect of hiring on at the strip mine as he is married off to 13-year-old Hendi. Alas, the young man finds the doors of opportunity shut tight. When Hendi becomes pregnant Hormoz enters into an ominous pact with a smuggler in order to ensure his family’s livelihood.
A man who has fallen in love with a young woman discovers that she is the wife of his friend. When he realizes the woman's affection for a young libertine with whom she is secretly meeting in an abandoned house, he commits suicide. When the local women, out of jealousy, expose her, she also ends her life. Her husband buries her body in the abandoned bathhouse. The young libertine, driven to madness, wanders into the desert.
Eight-year-old Leili needs to take a pinhole picture of her family for school the next day, but her family will not cooperate.
An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.
A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…
An Iranian boy befriends an old Japanese woman at a graveyard in Tokyo.
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision – to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Rouhi, a young bride-to-be, is hired as a maid for an affluent family in Tehran. Upon arriving, she is suddenly thrust into an explosive domestic conflict. The wife is convinced her husband is having an affair and enlists Rouhi as a spy, to follow her husband, and confirm her suspicions. What Rouhi discovers, however, threatens not only their marriage but her own future.
A political allegory on four middle-class guys who pile into their car for a ski weekend. A brief stop at a picturesque vista leads to their chance discovery of a prominent rock formation it seems would be oh so easy to tip over, but...
Makhmalbaf puts an advertisement in the papers calling for an open casting for his next movie. However when hundreds of people show up, he decides to make a movie about the casting and the screen tests of the would-be actors.