A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.
An 8-year-old boy must return his friend's notebook he took by mistake, lest his friend be punished by expulsion from school.
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.
An old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.
After an Afghanistan-born woman who lives in Canada receives a letter from her suicidal sister, she takes a perilous journey through Afghanistan to try to find her.
Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?
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?
Moscow, the 90s ... A city without a past and without a future. A city that doesn't forgive mistakes. Showing Moscow bohemia, the criminal business: nightlife, easy money, excitement and confusion form the surface of this life. The main characters of the film are businessman Mike and his friend and partner in smuggling Lev, a psychiatrist Mark and his school friend Irina who became the mistress of a nightclub, her two daughters - a crazy Olga working in the same club as a singer, and Masha - the “Moscow Princess” on the threshold of her thirtieth birthday. Love stories smoothly flow into a crime drama.
A man and a woman relive moments of their lives transfigured on the landscape of a beach. Past, present and future merge in the cadence of the waters, which come and go revolving memories and old silences. So the characters go through a sort of trail of desire, leading the edge of the abyss of themselves, where all days born and die, the horizon of all passes, all eventides.
Esther, a film composer going through a dry spell, moves in with her boyfriend Michael only to find out that he still keeps his Ex-girlfriend's belongings in his closet. What follows is an emotional roller coaster of a film exploring the great lengths an artist chooses to go to for the sake of inspiration.
The Photo (Persian: عکس) is a 2001 Iranian drama film Written and directed by Hossein Shahabi
Bright Shadow (Persian: سايه روشن) is a 1997 Iranian drama film written and directed by Hossein Shahabi (Persian: حسین شهابی)
Elevator (Persian: آسانسور) is a 1995 social drama Iranian film, written and directed by Hossein Shahabi (Persian: حسین شهابی)
The first of Peter Tscherkassky's Cinemascope trilogy of short films is a fragmented glimpse of images pulsating with chaotic rhythm as they fight white margins for room in his palette. Mirrored frames being split by white margin and trying to reassemble again like the poles of a magnet, a train approaching station and colliding with itself in white-hot blistering chaos.
Parvis, the son of exiled Iranians, copes with life in his small hometown by indulging himself with pop culture, Grindr dates, and raves. After being caught shoplifting, he is sentenced to community service at a refugee shelter where he meets siblings Banafshe and Amon, who have fled Iran. As a romantic attraction between Parvis and Amon grows, the fragile relationship between the three is put to a test.
A lonesome man at the threshold of death finds himself trapped in a place called the Endless.
Four friends spend a final summer together tangled in a web of sexual obsession, alienation and magic.
Short experimental film in black & white. A young girl learns to appreciate her beauty through the help of a mysterious stranger... Will this be the key to her happiness?
A series of short films in which the history of the Thai border town of Nabua is re-imagined as an elusive science fiction ghost story rooted in Thai folklore.
Ambrosia is the story of an Iranian-Canadian couple, Ali and Leila, who dream of an exciting future in Vancouver: Ali owns a pizza shop and thinks of expanding and Leila is an up-and-coming clothing designer. However, their situations change dramatically when Ali's shop is affected by bad economy and Leila is hired to work at a fashion design firm.