Mahmoud Kalari Movies

The documentary Persian Carpet features contributions from fifteen different Iranian directors who each present a true story about the making of or the importance of the title creations that have a rich history within the country's culture. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Director Nacer Khemir traces the profound journey of a young girl and her blind grandfather into the desert as they search for a legendary gathering of elders in an unknown location. Bab'Aziz is a noble dervish who, along with his spirited granddaughter Ishtar, has been invited to attend a special gathering that is said to take place somewhere deep in the dunes of the eternal desert. There are no directions to the location of the gathering, however, as it is said that those who are meant to attend will certainly find their way. As Bab'Aziz and Ishtar set out to find their destiny through the strength of their intuition and the power of their faith, Bab'Aziz imparts the tale of an ancient prince who once made a similar pilgrimage to his beloved granddaughter. Along the way, Ishtar will learn the value of patience, and both will encounter a series of fellow travelers whose remarkable stories help to unlock ancient mysteries and provide a better understanding of their barren kingdom. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A handful of men prove their masculine determination brings them nothing but trouble in this playful satiric comedy from Iran. Four longtime friends, all well into middle age, are returning to Tehran from a weekend skiing trip when they discover a large rock is stuck in the middle of a road winding around a mountain. The tall stone shaft (which appears just a bit phallic) is preventing them from going forward, so they try to push it over, with no success. They try to persuade an elderly man to help them move the rock with the help of his donkey, but the donkey's owner is wary, and after he's paid off, the plan still fails to move the stone. A pair of women happen by, one of whom is married to one of the skiers; while she tries to patiently stay out of the argument, her best friend is soon quarrelling with the guys about moving the rock, and as the day progresses and traffic begins to back up, she has more than a few other voices backing her up. Directed by Mani Haghighi, Karegaran Mashghoul-e Karand (aka Men At Work) was based on a story idea by the legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Marjan, a middle-aged, middle-class Tehran resident, is distraught when her cantankerous elderly father, Amir, goes missing. She goes to see her estranged husband, Aman, who reluctantly agrees to look for Amir, while Marjan watches over Aman's house, which is being renovated. Aman enlists the aid of his old friend, Atta, and the two drive off in search of Amir, who presumably took off to find an old friend whom he seems to have forgotten died years earlier. Atta playfully chastises Aman about his romantic entanglements. While they search for Amir, Aman's younger girlfriend pays an unexpected visit to his house and is surprised to find Marjan there. Meanwhile, Amir runs into another elderly man, Najmi, who agrees to help him find the apartment complex where his old friend lived so that he can deliver an important package. Amir tells Najmi that after the package is delivered, he's running away to Abadan, the beautiful oil-rich city on the southern shore of Iran. Najmi points out that the city was destroyed during the war with Iran, but Amir is concerned only with escape. Abadan is the debut feature from Iranian writer/director Mani Haghighi. It stars Jamshid Mashayekhi, Dariush Asadzadeh, Fatimeh Motamed Arya, Hedeyeh Tehrani, and Ehsan Amani. Abadan was shot by Mahmoud Kalari (The Wind Will Carry Us) on digital video with a very low budget. Because of its content (including profanity and spoken references to extramarital relations) and because it was not pre-approved by Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Abadan was rejected by Tehran's 2003 Fajr Film Festival and had its world premiere in Chicago at the 2003 Festival of Films from Iran. It was also shown at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Made by Tahmineh Milani, one of Iran's most prominent woman directors, The Hidden Half stars Niki Karimi as Fereshteh, an upper middle-class housewife who was a campus radical during Iran's tumultuous cultural revolution in the early 1980s. When her husband, Atila Pesiani, a lawyer, is assigned to defend a woman who faces the death penalty, Fereshteh is moved to write him a letter telling him about her past for the first time in the hopes that the story of her life will help him to understand the plight of the woman he is defending and the inner life of his own wife. Through a series of flashbacks, the film relates Fereshteh's years as an underground Marxist student revolutionary and her affair with a suave writer who seduces her through deception. Milani's film brings to light a mostly hidden aspect of Iran's recent past while making a number of strong feminist points. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi

Iranian filmmaker Bahman Farmanara wrote, directed, and stars in this autobiographical drama of an artist reaching beyond the limits of censorship. Farjami (Farmanara) is a movie director living in Iran who has not been permitted to make a picture since the Post-Revolutionary Censor Board came into effect two decades earlier. Suffering from a serious cardiac condition, Farjami is convinced he does not have long to live, so he makes plans for one final project -- a film on burial rites, which may or may not include his own funeral. Farjami's new production, which requires him to research the nuts and bolts of burial practices, at once forces him to come to terms with his mortality and leads him to yet another conflict with the authorities determined to prevent his self-expression. Farjami also encounters a woman who shares with him a terrible secret -- and unwittingly implicates him in her wrongdoings. Booye Kafoor, Atre Yas is Farmanara's first film since Saiehaieh Bolan De Bad in 1979.
~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Iranian filmmaker Dariush Mehrjui (Gav) directed and co-wrote this tale of a woman's dissolving marriage in contemporary Iran. Leila (Leila Hatami) meets her future husband, Reza (Ali Mosaffa), when a friend brings him to a family event. Two months later, they're married, and things seem to be blissful. The middle-class couple has a playful and loving relationship, but their happiness is jeopardized when they discover that Leila cannot bear children. As the couple tries various tests and alternate methods of conception to no avail, Reza continually reassures Leila that it's not important to him to have children -- only to be with her. But Reza is the only male child in his family, and his mother (Jamileh Sheikhi), an old-fashioned woman, is determined for him to have a son to continue the family line. She continually harangues Leila, telling her that Reza desperately wants a child, even if he insists to Leila that he doesn't. Eventually all the pressure from Reza's mother and her own feelings of inadequacy get to Leila, and she agrees to allow Reza to take a second wife who can have his child. As the couple grow more despondent and uncertain as to how to please one another, Reza, unable to assuage Leila's guilt, reluctantly agrees to meet several women his mother has selected as potential second wives. At first, Reza and Leila joke about the unsuitability of the women he's fixed up with, and rediscover some of the joy in their own loving marriage, but eventually their resistance wears down, and they both give in to his mother's wishes. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

History and truth are often a matter of perspective as can be seen in this deceptively simple and wry Iranian-French comedy that begins as an aging police officer enters the Tehran home of real-life filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf (who also wrote the screenplay and edited the film). The cop has come to call on an old debt and have Makhmalbaf put him in a film as the director promised many years ago. Inspired by the visit, Makhmalbaf decides to make a film about the events that led to his promise to the cop. The twist is that he will use different film crews and actors to recreate the scene from each of the involved parties' perspectives. He gives the cop his choice of young actors, and with a crew they go to the scene of the original crime. From the cop's point of view the event centered around his love for a pretty young girl he saw while guarding the gate of an important dignitary's residence. One day, he decides to ask her hand and buys a flower to give her. At the moment he does so, he is randomly attacked by young Makhmalbaf who stabbed him while trying to steal his gun. Later the attacker went to prison. Interestingly, the director has an entirely different spin on the event, showing the attack and even the presence of the girl to be carefully planned to assist with a revolutionary cause. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Iranian docudrama from filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf is a loving tribute to the centennial of international cinema. The film, which frequently criss-crosses the fine wavering line between reality and fiction, is set outside a house where the director is holding auditions for his newest film. Much to his shock, over 5,000 people are queued up outside. Eventually a riot ensues, but when things finally calm down, the auditions begin. Few of the applicants are professionals, and it is difficult to tell whether the interviews were staged by Makhmalbaf or whether they are taken from actual auditions. Still they are as entertaining, funny, and heartbreaking as cinema itself can be. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Ibsen's 19th century classic play A Doll's House is closely adapted and set in modern Iran in this unique Iranian drama. This version is set in a wealthy Tehran home and in Sarah's husband Hessam's bank. Outwardly Sara is the perfect submissive Moslem wife, but to her friend Simi she confides that she took out a loan 10 years ago from Goshtasb to help pay for her husband's medical expenses. To repay her debt, she embroiders wedding gowns. When Hessam threatens to fire Goshtasb, his bank manager, for faking a signature, Goshtasb threatens to retaliate by telling Hessam of the loan. Simi, hoping it will spare her former lover's job, thinks Hessam deserves to hear the truth and does not stop Goshtasb. Hessam is not grateful and begins to bully the bank manger. Sara watches her world fall to dust, but then awakens to her own rights. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi