Movies - Cinema of Iran

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Cinema of Iran

	Movies - Cinema of Iran

Iranian cinema (or Persian cinema ) with thousands of International film awards became one of the finest in the world, with festivals of Iranian films being held annually throughout the world.

Many critics now rank Iran as the world's most important national cinema artistically, with a significance that invites comparison to Italian Neorealism and similar movements in past decades.

Besides Cinema of Iran, Iranian or Persian cinema also includes cinema of Iranian continent as Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Kurdish states out of Iran . It may also refer to movies made in Persian language in other regions as Europe and United States or movies made by Iranians in languages other than Iranian ones.

Early Persian cinema

If one were to trace the first visual representations in Iranian history, the bas-reliefs in Persepolis (c.500 B. C) would be one of the earliest examples.

There were many dramatic performance arts popular before the advent of cinema in Iran. A few examples include: Khaymeshab-bazi (puppet shows), Saye-bazi (shadow plays), Rouhozi (comical acts), and Ta'zieh (a form of Persian passion play, presenting tragic dramas based on the martyrdom of Hossein, an extremely important figure in Shi'asm).

Cinema was only five years old when it came to Persia at the beginning of the 20th century. The first Persian filmmaker was likely Mirza Ebrahim Khan Akkas Bashi, the official photographer of Muzaffar al-Din Shah, the Shah (king) of Persia (1896-1907). After a visit to Paris in July 1900, Akkas Bashi obtained a camera and filmed the Shah's visit to Belgium.

Contemporary Iranian cinema

Khan Baba Motazedi founded the first cinema theater in Iran.

In 1932, Abdolhossein Sepanta who has been acknowledged as the father of Iranian sound movies made the first Iranian sound film named The Lor girl. Later in 1935, he directed as many movies such as Ferdowsi (the life story of the most celebrated epic poet of Iran), Shirin-o-Farhaad (an Iranian classic love story), and Black Eyes (the story of Nader Shah's invasion to India). Later in 1937, he also directed Laili-o-Majnoon, an eastern love story similar to western story of Romeo and Juliet.

The present Iranian film art and industry owes a lot of its progress to two industrious personalities, Esmail Koushan and Farrokh Ghaffari. By establishing the first National Iranian Film Society in 1949 at the Iran Bastan Museum and organizing the first Film Week during which English films were exhibited, Ghaffari laid the foundation stone of alternative and non-commercial films in Iran.

Pre-revolution Persian cinema produced memorable movies such as The Bride of the Sea produced by the late Arman (1965), Siavash at Persepolis produced by the late Ferreidun Rahnoma (1967), Brick and Mirror produced by Ebrahim Golestan (1967), The House of God produced by Jalal Moghaddam (1966), The Husband of Ahoo Khanom produced by Davood Mollapour (1968).

With the screening of the films Kaiser and the Cow produced by Masoud Kimiaie and Darioush Mehrjouie in 1969, alternative films established their status in the film industry. Attempts for organizing a film festival that had commenced since 1954 within the framework of the Golrizan Festival, bore fruits with the Sepas Festival in 1969 and the endeavors of Ali Mortazavi which resulted in the formation of the Tehran World Festival in 1973.

Post-revolutionary Iranian and Persian cinema has been praised in many international forums due to its distinct style, themes, authors, idea of nationhood, and manifestation of culture. Many world class Iranian directors emerged during last few decades as Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi. Intellectual cinema in Iran is enjoying more and more young talented directors. The continuous presence of Iranian films in prestigious international festivals as Cannes Film Festival, Venice Film Festival and Berlin Film Festival attracted world attention to Iranian masterpieces Iranian films have repeatedly been nominated or become the winner of prestigious prizes as Golden Lion of The Venice Film Festival , Palme d'Or of Cannes Film Festival and Golden and Silver Bear of Berlin Film Festival. In 2006, six Iranian films, with six different styles, represented Iranian cinema in Berlin Film Festival. This has been considered by critics as a remarkable event in the history of Iranian cinema.

Iranian Kurdish Cinema

In 1999, The Wind Will Carry Us
(Bād Mā Rā Khāhad Bord) by Abbas Kiarostami was the first movie partly shot in Kurdistan and presented at international film festivals (Venice Film Festival and Cannes Festival).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Cinema of Iran ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Cinema of Iran; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay