TRAILER: Cinema Release: The Hunter

Film: The Hunter

NEWS: DVD Release: Frontier Blues

Frontier Blues is the debut feature film written and directed by the Iranian born Babak Jalali. The film features four intertwined stories all set in Iran's northern frontier with Turkmenistan, a region that has long been neglected in Iranian cinema, interesting not only for its magnificent, forlorn landscape but also for its multi-ethnic population of Persians, Turkmens and Kazakhs.

“This film looks at fragments from the everyday existence of several characters that reside in this region,” said the director. “It was written based on what I saw, what I heard and what I did. It’s about the Northern Iranian Frontier. It’s the story of longing, waiting, remembering, desperate men and absent women. It’s about not quite getting there. Wherever that may be.”

Alam is a 28 year-old Turkmen man who lives with his father and works on a chicken farm. He is teaching himself English in order to marry a girl called Ana and take her to Baku.

Hassan is a 28-year-old Persian man who lives with his uncle. His only companions are his pet donkey and a tape player.

Kazem, Hassan’s uncle, owns a clothing store but the clothes he tries to sell never seem to fit anyone.

A 55 year-old Turkmen minstrel is the subject of a book of photography by a photographer from Tehran. His wife was kidnapped by a shepherd in a green Mercedes many years ago.

Frontier Blues features non-professional actors from Golestan, the Northern region of Iran, where the film was shot.

Film: Frontier Blues
Release date: 8th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 95 mins
Director: Babak Jalali
Starring: Abolfazl Karimi, Mahmoud Kalteh, Khajeh Araz Dordi, Behzad Shahrivari, Karima Adebibe
Genre: Drama
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: DVD
Country: Iran/UK/Italy

DVD Special Features:
• Short film – Heyday: An Afghan in Tehran

NEWS: Cinema Release: The Hunter

Recently released from prison, Ali makes the most of his return, amidst much talk of the upcoming elections and promises of change. Despite working nights, he tries to spend the most time possible with his beautiful wife and young daughter. To escape the stress of urban living, Ali retreats to his favourite pastime of hunting in the secluded forest north of town.

Tragedy strikes when Ali's wife Sara is accidentally killed in a police shoot-out with demonstrators. After a long and frustrating experience at the police station, Ali's own search for his missing six-6-old daughter ends in horror and pushes him over the edge. In broad daylight, overlooking the busy city’s surrounding highways; Ali randomly shoots and kills two policemen.

After a high-speed car chase outside of town, Ali flees into the northern forest where he is captured by two police officers. Ali is resigned to his fate and watches quietly as the arguing policemen lose their way in the woods. Situations complicate and the line between hunter and hunted becomes difficult to define.

Film: The Hunter
Release date: 29th October 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Rafi Pitts
Starring: Rafi Pitts, Mitra Hajjar, Ali Nicksaulat, Hassan Ghalenoi, Manoochehr Rahimi
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Studio: Artificial Eye
Format: Cinema
Country: Iran/Germany

REVIEW: DVD Release: Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame

Film: Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame
Release date: 10th November 2008
Certificate: PG
Running time: 73 mins
Director: Hana Makhmalbaf
Starring: Abbas Alijome, Abdolali Hoseinali, Nikbakht Noruz
Genre: Drama
Studio: Contender
Format: DVD
Country: Iran

Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame is the first feature length film by Hana Makmalbaf, daughter of director Mohsen Makmalbaf, and the youngest member of his illustrious film dynasty. While themes such as children and education is not a first for those already familiar with Iranian cinema (for example, 1997’s The Apple by Samira Makmalbaf, Hana’s older sister), Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame is still an impressive debut for the then 19 year-old filmmaker.

The film is set post-9/11 in Bamyam, a mountainous and remote area of central Afghanistan. It is also the site of the ancient Buddha statues, carved into the mountain cliffs, which the Taliban destroyed in March 2001.

News footage of the statues being blown up is shown at the beginning and end of the film, and the looming backdrop of the empty Buddha-shaped holes act as a constant reminder of the regime and its influence in this region.

The protagonist is a young girl named Baktay, and the film follows her as she tries to go to school, so that she too can learn the “funny stories” her friends are always reciting.

Baktay’s journey appears simple enough at first; her neighbour, a boy named Abbas, tells her that all she needs is a notebook and a pencil to attend school. Armed with four eggs, she heads off to the market to sell them for money. However, in the busy square no one wants to buy her eggs, and some of them get broken along the way. Eventually, having earned only 10 rupees, she settles for just a notebook and takes her mother’s lipstick to use as a pencil. The child’s quest for knowledge and education appears futile in an environment so poor that even the simplest items such as pen and paper become prized possessions…


One of the most disturbing and symbolic sequences of the film occurs when Baktay is on her way to the girl’s school, and encounters a group of boys ‘playing’ at being Taliban. The boys bully her using machine-guns fashioned out of sticks, and in a sinister twist, decide to play a ‘stoning’ game, punishing her for being sinful. They force her into a hole in the ground, and surround her with rocks poised in their hands. As Baktay begins to cry, protesting that she doesn’t want to play anymore, the boys grow more menacing, humiliating and taunting her. An innocent child’s game soon turns into a chilling depiction of female victimisation, and a brutal critique of the Taliban regime. In addition, it also shows how easily such violent practises are passed down and ingrained into the language and mind-set of the next generation. What other games can children play if all that surrounds them is war and conflict?

The choice to use child actors is as much an artistic decision as it is out of necessity. For Iranian filmmakers, censorship boards are so tight that it is difficult to film anything, especially if it involves women, without having the film banned altogether. One way for filmmakers to circumvent these restrictions is to use child actors (see 1995’s The White Balloon or 1997’s The Mirror), so that it is difficult to accuse the films of being decadent or promiscuous. Thus, the films automatically take on a more allegorical tone, forced to conceal their messages in the subtext.

The film’s pace maybe slow for some viewers, as it only spans across the events of a single day. But what the film lacks in action and pace, it makes up for by providing a fascinating glimpse into a way of life completely alien to most Western audiences. The image of a little girl in a yellow headscarf and bright green salwar kameez, scrambling across the top of a dusty, perilous mountain ledge just to reach her home is extremely striking. Moreover, the scenes of everyday life in rural Afghanistan are also absorbing to watch, such as making bread in a tandoor oven and threshing hay by hand. The fact that all the child actors were cast from local schools around Bamyam adds to the air of authenticity. In this sense, the film speaks more as a work of documentary than fiction. The fact that a film could even be made in a country where only years before all cinemas, television and other forms of entertainment had been banned is a testament itself.


Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame is an accomplished debut from a young filmmaker that addresses many problems surrounding the rebuilding of Afghanistan. While some might say it lacks the bravery to tackle these problems head on by using veiled allegories and metaphors, the force of its unflinching message cannot be questioned. KW

REVIEW: DVD Release: No One Knows About Persian Cats

Film: No One Knows About Persian Cats
Release date: 26th July 2010
Certificate: 12
Running time: 106 mins
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Starring: Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad, Hichkas, Hamed Seyyed Javadi, Ash Koosha
Genre: Drama
Studio: Network
Format: DVD
Country: Iran

It is easy to become complacent and apathetic about the power of artistic expression in a pop culture soaked world such as our own. Director Bahman Ghobadi is a member of the third generation of Iranian New Wave cinema which is an important force in the cultural climate of the country. Far from being purely a commercial entity, Iranian cinema has become the main medium through which Iranians can access modernity and formulate a national identity outside proscriptive religious values.

This conflict between religion and cultural modernity is at the heart of No One Knows About Persian Cats. Negar and Ashkan have just been released from prison due to involvement in artistic activities prohibited by strict Islamic law. Far from deterred, the couple are keen to form a band so they can perform in Tehran before travelling to the UK to promote their music.

What follows is an excursion into the thriving underground music scene in Tehran, courtesy of Nader played by Hamed Behdad, the self-proclaimed “Marlon Brando of Iran…”


Nader is in many ways the driving force of the film, not only does he promise to arrange passports and visas for Negar and Ashkan but also for their potential band members. When Nader is first introduced, he is a hurricane of activity; between claiming he can facilitate the couple’s artistic endeavours, he chatters to his budgies Scarlett, Rhett Butler and Monica Bellucci. It’s just unfortunate that the demo they give him sounds like derivate washed-out Britpop. Luckily, Nader fails to notice this and introduces them to some of the best musical talent Tehran has to offer; Rana Farhan, the Persian equivalent of a soul singer, rough-and-ready rapper Hichkas, indie kids The Yellow Dogs Band and a heavy metal group.

Nearly everyone featured in film is obsessed with western pop culture. Just waiting in the queue for her illegal papers, Negar gets talking to a woman about indie music and Madonna. David, the shady character who is to provide their visas, gives Nader a verbal lashing for giving him a black market film that contains romance when all he wants is high-octane Hollywood action. Nader meanwhile will swear on his mother, the Qu’ran and endure a real lashing in order to protect his film collection when it is discovered by the authorities. However, the excitement of one indie band member when Ashkan gives him a copy of NME lends a little absurdity - why get excited about the music of Green Day when you’re a subversive musician rebelling against a strict Muslim government?

Ashkan and Negar’s difficulty in getting a permit to play a gig in Tehran shows how stringent the rules are, but this also provides much of the humour. Ashkan complains that Negar’s lyrics are too gloomy, joking, “Did you write them in prison?’” When she replies in the affirmative he adds, “you’ll never get a permit for that.” The bands have to get creative if they want to practice and avoid being reported to the police, or be stopped short by a power cut. This being the case, the trio goes to watch a heavy metal band perform in a cowshed. The cows clearly object to amps being balanced on their hay bales, as the farmer complains they have stopped producing milk.

Much of the film is music combined with cityscapes which could easily be naff pastiche if weren’t set somewhere as exotic and unknown to western eyes as Iran. The ‘indie’ unsteady camerawork is forgiven for the shots of people and places: a man proudly standing in front of his shop with a knickers display in the window, chickens being butchered, children messing about on bikes, and building sites. There is also a nod to class struggle thanks to Persian street rapper Hichkas, who explicitly states that all human life is not treated with equal respect. After all, one wonders how Negar and Ashkan support their artistic ambitions without ever having to work, it seems.


No One Knows About Persian Cats does not end optimistically and represents a generation of disenfranchised youth and talent. Many aspire to leave Iran, as, at present, this is their only option to achieve their artistic goals, but what the film does prove is that art, culture and music can thrive even under the most hostile of circumstances. SR

TRAILER: Cinema Release: Frontier Blues

Film: Frontier Blues