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Movie: ABJAD
Sunday February 8 2004, 7:00PM ( Buy ticket )
> ABJAD
(2003) Directed by Abolfazl Jalili
Abolfazl Jalili's astonishing new film is a semi-autobiographical
story set in the late 1970s, in the tumultuous period just before the
Revolution. The story centers around sixteen year-old Emkan, a
sensitive, curious and artistically inclined youth whose creative
leanings are constantly stifled by his conservative family. To
complicate matters further, Emkan, a Muslim, falls in love with the
beautiful Maassoum, a young Jewish girl whose family runs a local
cinema. Soon the two youths are caught between their feelings for
each other and the outrage of their families. Out of this story and
the perfectly nuanced performances of its two young actors, Jalili
has crafted a masterpiece, infused with subtlety and tender humor.
Producer: Emmanuel Benbihy. Screenplay: Abolfazl Jalili. Editor:
Abolfazl Jalili. Coreographer: Mehdi Majde Vaziri. Cast: Mehdi
Morady, Mina Molania, Sharare Roohy, Fariba Khademy. Presented in
Farsi dialogue with English subtitles. 35mm, 111 min.
>>> UCLA PERSIAN FILM FEST
1.7.04 - 2.11.04
UCLA Film and Television Archive & The Bijan Amin and Soraya Amin
Foundation present
14TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF IRANIAN CINEMA
Like the nation it reflects so vividly and thoughtfully, Iranian
cinema is at a crossroads. Iran has an overwhelmingly young
population, and almost all of the selections in this survey of recent
Iranian filmmaking concern a generation of young people dissatisfied
with their present situation and uncertain about the future. In very
different ways, LETTERS IN THE WIND and DEEP BREATH movingly and
excitingly depict protagonists caught between adolescent rebellion
and the search for a place in society. Similarly, a new generation of
filmmakers is emerging as the trickle of titles distributed
independently grows to a flood. Like LETTERS IN THE WIND, TEHRAN,
7:00 A.M. is a first film from this independent movement, and like
DEEP BREATH, it represents a break with the kind of filmmaking that
foreign viewers typically associate with Iranian cinema. Instead of
pastoral lyricism or poetic neorealism, these films focus on the
pleasures and displeasures of everyday urban life.
The tradition in Iranian cinema of combining keenly observed realism
and symbolic allegory continues with another first film, DANCING IN
THE DUST. Yet another first feature, BLACK TAPE, combines two
concerns of recent Iranian cinema-the place of women and the place of
the dispossessed Kurds-but with a harsh contemporary edge unusual in
the films from the 1990s that put Iranian cinema on the map. Our
opening night film, CRIMSON GOLD, is a collaboration between two
acknowledged masters, Abbas Kiarostami (TEN) and Jafar Panahi (THE
CIRCLE). This film too is concerned about dehumanizing forces in
Iranian society. It is a concern with global resonance.
Special thanks to: Mark Amin; Bo Smith, Lori Donnelly-Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston; -Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago; Tom Vick-Freer and
Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution; B鲩nice Reynaud-REDCAT;
Zareh Arevshatian.
All films in Farsi with English subtitles.
Posted by ahmad () at February 8, 2004 7:00 PM
