IRANIAN FILM CYCLE
from 08 JAN 2015 to 09 JAN 2015
A programme of Iranian cinema that helps unveil Iran's visual culture - which is extremely rich, but to a large extent unknown.
This film cycle pretends to enter into relation with the exhibition ”Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Infinite Possibility. Mirror Works and Drawings 1974-2014” and to contribute to outline the artistic context of the country in which the artist has developed her work.
08 JAN 2015
Fifi Howls from Happiness (Fifi Az Khoshhali Zooze Mikeshad)
Mitra Farahani
2013, 96'
09 JAN 2015
Cyanosis (Sianoze)
Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami
2007, 32'
The Treasure Cave
Bahman Kiarostami
2009, 43' FIFI AZ KHOSHHALI ZOOZE MIKESHAD SIANOZE THE TREASURE CAVE FIFI AZ KHOSHHALI ZOOZE MIKESHAD [FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS]
France, Iran, USA, 2013, 96’
Director, screenwriter and cinematographer: Mitra Farahani
Language: Farsi
English subtitles
Producer: Marjaneh Moghimi
Executive producer: Fereydoun Firouz
Leading cast: Bahman Mohasses
Film editor: Yannick Kergoat, Suzana Pedro
Original music: Tara Kamangar
One of the most fascinating and moving documentaries of 2013, Fifi Howls from Happiness introduces the vivid, charismatic and combative Iranian artist Bahman Mohasses. Celebrated in pre-revolutionary Iran, Mohasses was written out of its history since 1979. No one had heard of him since, until filmmaker Mitra Farahani tracked the ageing artist down to a hotel room in Rome. Equally prone to egotism and self-destruction, he had a disturbing tendency of destroying his own paintings. The film witnesses the attempts to reclaim and value what is left and follows the creative process of his last work.
Mitra Farahani (Tehran, 1975) graduated in Graphic Design from Azad University in Tehran in 1997 and emigrated to Paris where she worked in Performance and Fine Arts field, documenting her practice in Tableau de bois. She has studied at ENSAD in Paris from 2000. Her first documentary, the short film Juste une femme, won the Teddy Award at the 2002 Berlinale. Tabous ? Zohre & Manouchehr (2004) and Fifi Howls From Happiness (2013), two feature documentaries, were awarded in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2007, her documentary Behjat Sadr: Time Suspended portrayed one of the pioneers of Abstract Expressionism in Iran. In 2009 she was arrested by the Iranian government on her return to Tehran.
SIANOZE [CYANOSIS]
Iran, 2007, 32’
Director and producer: Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami
Language: Farsi
English subtitles
Director of photography: Mohammad Behnamzade
Editor: Mehdi Ganji
Jamshid Aminfar is the only artist who is not afraid to go out onto the streets of Teheran to exhibit and sell his work; and this is also where he creates his distinctive paintings reminiscent of canvases by Keith Haring or the gloomy images of Edvard Munch. Every day he has to face persecution from the police, negative responses to his work from his wife and passers-by, and also his own demons, which he skillfully conjures up in his paintings. The latter are brought to life with the aid of wonderful eye-catching animation by Iranian director Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami, who also follows her hero as he prepares for his first exhibition and conducts a romance with a young French art student. Aminfar’s animated paintings are talking about his inner life, dreams, nightmares and memories. This documentary film includes 10 minutes of animation sequences.
Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami (Tehran, 1976) has a BA in Cinema and a MA in Animation from Teheran University. She has researched on ‘animated documentary’ and Cyanosis is her work for her MA degree. Her published essays and research include the book, Animated Documentary: A New Way to Express, published in Persian in 2009. Her short documentary works include Pigeon Fanciers (2000), A Loud Solitude (2010), Born 20 Minutes Late (2010), Going up the Stairs (2011), and the animated documentary Cyanosis (2007).
THE TREASURE CAVE
Iran, 2009, 43’
Direction and cinematography: Bahman Kiarostami
Language: Farsi
English subtitles
Written by: Sonia Kronlund
Production: Point Du Jour
Executive Producer: Christoph Jörg, Arte France
Editing: Francois Sculier
Music: Kiawasch Sahebnasagh
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran was widely deemed to own the most important and comprehensive collection of modern Western art in Asia, including works by masters such as Picasso, Monet, Kandinsky, Miró, Warhol, to name a few names. After the revolution, the masterworks were stowed in the building’s underground storage vaults, relegated to abandonment and invisibility, locked behind high-security doors. In the meantime, the building was transformed into a memorial honouring the martyrs of the revolution and the Iran?Iraq War. The Treasure Cave reconstructs the fateful history of the Museum.
Bahman Kiarostami (Tehran, 1978) lives and works in Tehran as a documentary film director, editor and cinematographer. He made his first documentary ‘Morteza Momayez: Father of Iranian Contemporary Graphic Design’ in 1996. Most of his documentaries focus on valuing and legitimizing processes in art, but also cover the visible yet obscured and unnoticed details which define Iran's post-revolutionary visual culture.
Kiarostami's filmography includes: Kahrizak, Four Views (2013) Taxi-Tehran (2012), Javad (2011), The Treasure Cave (2010), Statues of Tehran (2008), Anonymous (2007), Re-enactment (2006), Pilgrimage (2005), Persian Gardens (2005), Two Bows (2004), Infidels (2004), Nour (2003), I Saw Shoush (2002), Tabaki (2001).
This film cycle pretends to enter into relation with the exhibition ”Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian: Infinite Possibility. Mirror Works and Drawings 1974-2014” and to contribute to outline the artistic context of the country in which the artist has developed her work.
08 JAN 2015
Fifi Howls from Happiness (Fifi Az Khoshhali Zooze Mikeshad)
Mitra Farahani
2013, 96'
09 JAN 2015
Cyanosis (Sianoze)
Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami
2007, 32'
The Treasure Cave
Bahman Kiarostami
2009, 43' FIFI AZ KHOSHHALI ZOOZE MIKESHAD SIANOZE THE TREASURE CAVE FIFI AZ KHOSHHALI ZOOZE MIKESHAD [FIFI HOWLS FROM HAPPINESS]
France, Iran, USA, 2013, 96’
Director, screenwriter and cinematographer: Mitra Farahani
Language: Farsi
English subtitles
Producer: Marjaneh Moghimi
Executive producer: Fereydoun Firouz
Leading cast: Bahman Mohasses
Film editor: Yannick Kergoat, Suzana Pedro
Original music: Tara Kamangar
One of the most fascinating and moving documentaries of 2013, Fifi Howls from Happiness introduces the vivid, charismatic and combative Iranian artist Bahman Mohasses. Celebrated in pre-revolutionary Iran, Mohasses was written out of its history since 1979. No one had heard of him since, until filmmaker Mitra Farahani tracked the ageing artist down to a hotel room in Rome. Equally prone to egotism and self-destruction, he had a disturbing tendency of destroying his own paintings. The film witnesses the attempts to reclaim and value what is left and follows the creative process of his last work.
Mitra Farahani (Tehran, 1975) graduated in Graphic Design from Azad University in Tehran in 1997 and emigrated to Paris where she worked in Performance and Fine Arts field, documenting her practice in Tableau de bois. She has studied at ENSAD in Paris from 2000. Her first documentary, the short film Juste une femme, won the Teddy Award at the 2002 Berlinale. Tabous ? Zohre & Manouchehr (2004) and Fifi Howls From Happiness (2013), two feature documentaries, were awarded in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2007, her documentary Behjat Sadr: Time Suspended portrayed one of the pioneers of Abstract Expressionism in Iran. In 2009 she was arrested by the Iranian government on her return to Tehran.
SIANOZE [CYANOSIS]
Iran, 2007, 32’
Director and producer: Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami
Language: Farsi
English subtitles
Director of photography: Mohammad Behnamzade
Editor: Mehdi Ganji
Jamshid Aminfar is the only artist who is not afraid to go out onto the streets of Teheran to exhibit and sell his work; and this is also where he creates his distinctive paintings reminiscent of canvases by Keith Haring or the gloomy images of Edvard Munch. Every day he has to face persecution from the police, negative responses to his work from his wife and passers-by, and also his own demons, which he skillfully conjures up in his paintings. The latter are brought to life with the aid of wonderful eye-catching animation by Iranian director Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami, who also follows her hero as he prepares for his first exhibition and conducts a romance with a young French art student. Aminfar’s animated paintings are talking about his inner life, dreams, nightmares and memories. This documentary film includes 10 minutes of animation sequences.
Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami (Tehran, 1976) has a BA in Cinema and a MA in Animation from Teheran University. She has researched on ‘animated documentary’ and Cyanosis is her work for her MA degree. Her published essays and research include the book, Animated Documentary: A New Way to Express, published in Persian in 2009. Her short documentary works include Pigeon Fanciers (2000), A Loud Solitude (2010), Born 20 Minutes Late (2010), Going up the Stairs (2011), and the animated documentary Cyanosis (2007).
THE TREASURE CAVE
Iran, 2009, 43’
Direction and cinematography: Bahman Kiarostami
Language: Farsi
English subtitles
Written by: Sonia Kronlund
Production: Point Du Jour
Executive Producer: Christoph Jörg, Arte France
Editing: Francois Sculier
Music: Kiawasch Sahebnasagh
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran was widely deemed to own the most important and comprehensive collection of modern Western art in Asia, including works by masters such as Picasso, Monet, Kandinsky, Miró, Warhol, to name a few names. After the revolution, the masterworks were stowed in the building’s underground storage vaults, relegated to abandonment and invisibility, locked behind high-security doors. In the meantime, the building was transformed into a memorial honouring the martyrs of the revolution and the Iran?Iraq War. The Treasure Cave reconstructs the fateful history of the Museum.
Bahman Kiarostami (Tehran, 1978) lives and works in Tehran as a documentary film director, editor and cinematographer. He made his first documentary ‘Morteza Momayez: Father of Iranian Contemporary Graphic Design’ in 1996. Most of his documentaries focus on valuing and legitimizing processes in art, but also cover the visible yet obscured and unnoticed details which define Iran's post-revolutionary visual culture.
Kiarostami's filmography includes: Kahrizak, Four Views (2013) Taxi-Tehran (2012), Javad (2011), The Treasure Cave (2010), Statues of Tehran (2008), Anonymous (2007), Re-enactment (2006), Pilgrimage (2005), Persian Gardens (2005), Two Bows (2004), Infidels (2004), Nour (2003), I Saw Shoush (2002), Tabaki (2001).
