Co-presented with the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art
Iranian filmmakers continue to create culturally vital and innovative films despite daunting challenges. This annual series provides a look at both the latest films from Iran and selected classics.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art will present selected films in person and online via the museum's video-on-demand platform beginning January 13; all films screening at AFI Silver starting January 28 will be presented in person.
Documentary filmmaker and producer Mitra Farahani (FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS) brokered an introduction between two eminent filmmakers in her orbit: the legendary enfant terrible of the French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard, and Ebrahim Golestan, director of the 1965 classic BRICK AND MIRROR and producer of Forugh Farrokhzad's legendary 1963 film THE HOUSE IS BLACK (his grandson, Mani Haghighi, directed SUBTRACTION which also screens in this year's series). Godard died last September at the age of 91, while Golestan recently turned 100. The 2021 correspondence between the two men played out for the better part of a year, with Godard emailing Golestan cryptic but allusive combinations of words and images from his home in Switzerland, fragments of thoughts about cinema, language, love and death, signing off each with "See You Friday, Robinson," a riff on Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe." From his home in Sussex, England, Golestan in turn sent thoughtful, sometimes uproariously funny, replies to Godard. Farahani's intimate documentary provides a privileged look at two men, great artists and thinkers, who had never met in person but who developed a late-in-life rapport with one another. Official Selection, 2022 Berlin, Telluride and Busan film festivals. DIR/PROD Mitra Farahani; PROD Hamidreza Pejman. France/Switzerland/Iran/Lebanon, 2022, color, 97 min. In English, Persian, French, Italian and German with English subtitles. NOT RATED
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 97 Minutes