Iranian film festival examines desire for change

Iranian film festival examines desire for change

BY ELLEN CHANG
Rice News staff

The desire for political reform and change in Iran and humanitarian issues will be highlighted in the 11th annual Houston Iranian Film Festival, which kicks off at Rice Cinema Jan. 23.

”Marooned in Iraq,” the final film of the Iranian Film Festival, demonstrates the brutality of the Iran-Iraq War through the eyes of an elderly Kurdish singer.

The festival, which began Jan. 9 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, runs through Feb. 1.

The film festival features the best of Iranian cinema, which has emerged to the forefront of screens worldwide, compared to its minor role at international film festivals just a decade ago. Three rising Iranian-American filmmakers will be present to discuss Iranian cinema during a panel discussion.

This year’s festival includes five of the latest and most prominent feature films, a variety of animated films made by filmmakers before and after the revolution and a film poster exhibition.

Iranian cinema is not just a commercial enterprise and industry, it is also a means of personal and national expression, said Hamid Naficy, chair of the Department of Art History, the Nina J. Cullinan Professor of Art and Art History/Film and Media Studies and an expert on Iranian cinema.

”The limitations imposed on Iranians by the Islamist government in Iran and by Western countries through their boycott of Iran, particularly by the United States, have forced the filmmakers to seek creative and alternative means of self-expression and national projection,” he said.

Cinema bridges the gaps and the walls of distrust that politics have created and makes Iranian cinema stand out from other countries’, Naficy said.

The first weekend of the festival at Rice Cinema features the film poster show, three films and a panel discussion. The festival kicks off with the poster show Jan. 23 and is followed by the film ”Exam.” Directed by Nasser Rafaie, the film won the top prize at the Jeonju International Film Festival in Korea and examines the hopes and frustrations of Iranian girls who are dreading the nationwide college entrance exam in an artful blend of fact and fiction.

A panel discussion titled ”Iranian Cinema and the Politics of Cultural Exchange with the United States” begins at 1 p.m. Jan. 24. Jamsheed Akrami, the former editor of Iranian film magazines Film Quarterly and Film and Art, will discuss ”Cinema as Cultural Diplomacy.” Iranian-American filmmaker Persheng Sadeqgh-Vaziri will talk about ”Politics of Bi-cultural Filmmaking.” Former San Francisco State University film professor and ”experimental” documentary filmmaker Caveh Zahedi will discuss ”Growing Up Other.” The discussion will be moderated by Naficy.

The first weekend concludes with 90 minutes of animated shorts from some of the best Iranian animators and the film ”Low Heights.” Directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia, the film is a fast-paced, wild and dark tragicomedy that reflects Iran’s disillusionment and despair with life under the controlling Islamic Republic.

The second weekend features three thought-provoking films that explore the effects of war on people, especially children. ”Deserted Station,” directed by Alireza Raisian, is a philosophical and picturesque film of seemingly futile quests by a photographer and his wife. Leila Hatami won the best actress award at the 2002 Montreal Film Festival for her role in the film.

Majid Majidi’s ”Journey to Heart” is an emotionally wrenching film that focuses on the children from Afghanistan — before and after the Taliban — who live in three major refugee camps in Afghanistan: Makadi, Zarand and Maslakh. The movie, made by the director of ”Children of Heaven,” explores the efforts of the children and families to lead normal lives despite their adversities.

The festival concludes with ”Marooned in Iraq,” directed by Bahman Qobadi, who also directed ”A Time for Drunken Horses.” The film demonstrates the brutality of the Iran-Iraq War through the eyes of an elderly Kurdish singer who sets off from Iranian Kurdistan with his two sons to search for his wife who left 23 years ago to pursue her singing career in Iraq.

For more information about the films, go to < http://ricecinema.rice.edu >. All events will be held at the Rice Media Center. The festival is sponsored by the Department of Art History, the Department of Visual Arts, Rice Cinema, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, Global Studies Faculty Initiative and the Rice Iranian Students Association.

The festival organizers and curators are Naficy and Charles Dove, director of Rice Cinema.