Iranian-studies.com

9.00-10.30

Zero Degree Turn.  Hassan Fathi.  (Episodes 1-2)
60 Minutes 

A wildly popular television soap opera set in World War II about an Iranian diplomat who helps Iranian Jews in France escape to Iran with false Iranian passports.  At the heart of the series is a love story between an Iranian-Palestinian Muslim man and a French Jewish woman whom he saves from concentration camps. 

11.00- 12.30

The Children of Teheran.Yehuda Kaveh, David Tour, Dalia Guttman, 2007. 63 Minute

The film begins in the Autumn of 1939 during World War II. The Nazis occupied Poland and thousands of Jewish families escaped eastward, into the hands of the Russian army. Some Jewish parents, hoping to give their children a better chance of survival, left them in local Polish orphanages, posing as Christians. In 1942, the Polish Christian orphans were transported to the shores of the Caspian Sea. These children were later relocated to Teheran and kept in crowded tents and difficult conditions. When word of the children’s arrival in Teheran reached Palestine in early 1943, the Jewish Agency sent three Israeli emissaries to extract as many Jewish children from the Christian orphanages as possible. These “children of Tehran” were the first large group of Holocaust survivors to reach Palestine, and their story circulated as indicative of the heroic spirit of the Jewish people during WWII.

Travelogue. Mahnaz Mohammadi, 2006. 40 Minutes.

Mohammadi documents the various stories of Iranian immigrants who choose to leave their homeland in search of a better life abroad.

14.00-15.30

Football Under Cover. David Assman and Ayat Najafi, 2008. 86 Minutes. (In German with English subtitles).

“Marlene, member of the local Berlin soccer team BSV AL-Dersimspor, learns about the Iranian female national soccer team that until now has never had the chance to play against another team. She convinces her team to try and change that and begins to search for supporters of her idea. When they can't be found in Germany, she travels to Tehran and initiates an exciting and difficult march through the Iranian institutions. With the date of the match being postponed several times and the political climate deteriorating, the more adamantly she follows her dream, the more it seems to slip away” Jamie Fitzgerald, IMDb.com

16.30-18.00

Waiting to be Stoned: Story of Maokkarrameh, 2007. Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh. 15 Minutes.

This film is about an adulterous couple condemned to death by stoning.  The convicted man, Jafar Kiani, was stoned to death in Summer of 2006.  The convicted woman, Maokkarrameh, is still awaiting execution with her four year old child in prison.  The film documents the struggle of her lawyer and women’s rights activists who are trying to save her from stoning. 

90 Minutes Equality, 2008.  Women’s Field Network (Meydan Zan).  15 Minutes.

In Iran, women are prohibited from entering stadiums and watching men’s soccer games.   For years, Iranian women have disguised themselves as men in order to enter soccer stadiums in order to watch the championship games.   This film is the story of a female activist who dons men’s clothing and tries to make her way into the stadium.

Q & A.  Mahboubeh Abbasgholizadeh. 30 Minutes.

09.00-10.30

A Few Days Later.  Niki Karimi, 2006.  78 minutes.

Niki Karimi’s second feature film traces the gradual unfolding of Shahrzad’s (Karimi herself) emotional upheaval as she makes the life-altering decision of ending her relationship with her long-term boyfriend, Mahmood, with whom she is raising a son.

11.00-12.30

Nose, Iranian Style." Mehrdad Oskouei, 2005. 52 Minutes.

Oskouei offers us a glimpse into one of the paradoxes of life under the Islamic Republic: a country where the official rhetoric discourages a pre-occupation with the aesthetic, but which leads the world in rhinoplasty with an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 surgeries a year.  Oskouei uses humour to consider a very serious phenomenon and  question the cultural and political direction of a society that on the one hand eschews Western culture, and on the other, shapes itself (or its noses) in its image.

Partial Stories of “Displacement.” Azadeh Saljooghi, 2005. 30 Minutes

This film focuses on the politics and the poetics of diaspora, locating women’s lives in historical-political contexts, and capturing displacement beyond geographical dislocations.  Saljooghi invites audiences to view displacement in positive and celebratory ways, rather than as a negative phenomenon.  The film focuses on six women: Palestinian-American, African-American, Afghan-American, and Native-American, Romanian and Turkish.  Their powerful narratives are interwoven with poems by Wislawa Szymborska and Derek Walcott.

14.00-15.30

Red Card. Mahnaz Afzali, 2007. 74 Minutes.

This documentary follows one of the most controversial criminal cases in Iran in which Shahla Jahad, the long-time lover of famed Iranian soccer player, Nasser Khani, is arrested and accused of murdering his wife.  Afzali manages to capture some remarkable moments on film: actual court sessions and personal interviews with both Khani and Jahad which make us question the real culprit in this case.

16.30-18.00

Article 61. Mahvash Sheikholeslami, 2006. 65 Minutes.

A daring documentary, partly filmed in an Iranian prison, focuses on four women facing execution for murdering their aggressors. The title of the film refers to an article of the Islamic penal code that sanctions an individual to respond with violence if her life or honour is at stake.  However, women often find themselves at a great disadvantage under Islamic law: if they are victims of rape, they will be charged with adultery and sentenced to execution.  If they take matters into their own hands and murder the rapist, they will be sentenced to execution for murder.  The compelling interviews that make up the film reveal heart-wrending stories of women’s abuse, of their suffering and of their resistance through violence. 

Zero Degree Turn. Hassan Fathi. (Episode 3). 60 Minutes.

A wildly popular television soap opera set in World War II about an Iranian diplomat who helps Iranian Jews in France escape to Iran with false Iranian passports.  At the heart of the series is a love story between an Iranian-Palestinian Muslim man and a French Jewish woman whom he saves from concentration camps. 

19.30-21.00

Excerpts from the documentary Finding Home

19.30-21.00

The Making of Finding Home: A Panel Discussion

09.00-10.30

The Birthday.  Daisy Mohr and Negin Kianfar, 2006.  63 Minutes.

Daisy Mohr and Negin Kianfar offer an insightful look into the legal and emotional implications of transsexual operations in Iran.  Although homosexuality is a crime punishable by death in Iran, it is not illegal to undergo a sex change procedure.  The main character in this documentary is a male-to-female transsexual who has to come to terms with her new female identity in a cultural and social context as well as a political and religious context as she now has to wear the hijab in accordance with Iranian law.

11.00-12.30

Four Wives. Nahid Persson, 2007. 76 Minutes.

“From Nahid Persson, the filmmaker of the award-winning Prostitution Behind the Veil, comes an intimate portrait of a polygamist family in a rural Iranian village. Persson reveals the intricacies of the relationships between the four wives, their husband, their astoundingly free-spoken mother-in-law and their numerous children. Sometimes humorous and often heartbreaking, this film follows the daily lives of the wives whose situation has turned them into both bitter rivals and co-conspirators against their abusive husband.   This is a film that provides unique insights into the practice of polygamy and its effect on the women involved.” WMM.

14.00-15.30

Twenty fingers. Mania Akbari, 2004. 72 Minutes.

Akbari explores the emotional journeys couples embark upon in their relationships.  The film features the same two actors who appear as different characters in seven vignettes, and whose problems are revealed through a series of altercations. Some of the issues that arise are specific to women’s cultural and social place in a contemporary Iranian context, while others can be “translated” to any cultural context as they revolve around questions of adultery, abortion and jealousy

16.00-18.30

Plenary Session: The Shahnamah Millennium

19.30-22.00

The Shahnamah Millennium Concert (ticketed event) Roy Thomson Hall

09.00-10.30

Football Under Cover. David Assman and Ayat Najafi, 2008. 86 Minutes. (In German with English subtitles).

“Marlene, member of the local Berlin soccer team BSV AL-Dersimspor, learns about the Iranian female national soccer team that until now has never had the chance to play against another team. She convinces her team to try and change that and begins to search for supporters of her idea. When they can't be found in Germany, she travels to Tehran and initiates an exciting and difficult march through the Iranian institutions. With the date of the match being postponed several times and the political climate deteriorating, the more adamantly she follows her dream, the more it seems to slip away” Jamie Fitzgerald, IMDb.com

11.00 - 12.30

The Children of Teheran.Yehuda Kaveh, David Tour, Dalia Guttman, 2007. 63 Minute

The film begins in the Autumn of 1939 during World War II. The Nazis occupied Poland and thousands of Jewish families escaped eastward, into the hands of the Russian army. Some Jewish parents, hoping to give their children a better chance of survival, left them in local Polish orphanages, posing as Christians. In 1942, the Polish Christian orphans were transported to the shores of the Caspian Sea. These children were later relocated to Teheran and kept in crowded tents and difficult conditions. When word of the children’s arrival in Teheran reached Palestine in early 1943, the Jewish Agency sent three Israeli emissaries to extract as many Jewish children from the Christian orphanages as possible. These “children of Tehran” were the first large group of Holocaust survivors to reach Palestine, and their story circulated as indicative of the heroic spirit of the Jewish people during WWII.

Zero Degree Turn.  Hassan Fathi. (Episode 4) 60 Minutes 

A wildly popular television soap opera set in World War II about an Iranian diplomat who helps Iranian Jews in France escape to Iran with false Iranian passports.  At the heart of the series is a love story between an Iranian-Palestinian Muslim man and a French Jewish woman whom he saves from concentration camps. 

14.00-15.30

Nose, Iranian Style." Mehrdad Oskouei, 2005. 52 Minutes.

Oskouei offers us a glimpse into one of the paradoxes of life under the Islamic Republic: a country where the official rhetoric discourages a pre-occupation with the aesthetic, but which leads the world in rhinoplasty with an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 surgeries a year.  Oskouei uses humour to consider a very serious phenomenon and  question the cultural and political direction of a society that on the one hand eschews Western culture, and on the other, shapes itself (or its noses) in its image.

The Birthday.  Daisy Mohr and Negin Kianfar, 2006.  63 Minutes.

Daisy Mohr and Negin Kianfar offer an insightful look into the legal and emotional implications of transsexual operations in Iran.  Although homosexuality is a crime punishable by death in Iran, it is not illegal to undergo a sex change procedure.  The main character in this documentary is a male-to-female transsexual who has to come to terms with her new female identity in a cultural and social context as well as a political and religious context as she now has to wear the hijab in accordance with Iranian law.