Franco-Iranian co-productions at the Billy Wilder Theater

The UCLA Film & Television Archive continues its long tradition of bringing the best cinema from Iran and the Iranian diaspora to Los Angeles. Ever mindful of the ongoing struggles facing Iranian filmmakers in their native country, this year’s program champions the work of new and emerging directors, including  Titanic, Suitable Version for Iranian families, a short film by Farnoosh Samadi, Achilles directed by Farhad Delaram, and In The Land of Brothers, directed by Alireza Ghasemi and Raha Amirfazil, while bringing back to the screen a long-thought-lost landmark of Iranian cinema.

Saturday, June 22, 7:30 PM | Titanic, Suitable Version for Iranian families by Farnoosh Samadi.

A team of Iranian television censors debate the finer points of on-screen propriety while outside their office window more consequential forces are beginning to stir. 
This short film will be playing before Roxana, a feature by Parviz Shahbazi.

Directed by: Farnoosh Samadi

Friday, June 28, 7:30 PM | Achilles by Farhad Delaram.

Worn down by the insurmountable obstacles he faced trying to make films, Farid (Mirsaeed Molavian) has resigned himself to working as a caregiver at a hospital in Tehran. Even there, his quiet refusal of administrative decrees leads to a demotion and assignment to the high security psychiatric ward. At his lowest, Farid finds a path back to life through the figure of a mysterious patient who — he learns — has been institutionalized as a political prisoner and whom he helps escape. A riveting story of resistance, writer-director Farhad Delaram’s feature film debut made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. DCP, in Persian with English subtitles, drama, 116 min.

Written and directed by: Farhad Delaram
With: Mirsaeed Molavian, Behdokht Valian, Roya Afshar

Sunday, June 30, 7:00 PM | In the Land of Brothers by Alireza Ghasemi and Raha Amirfazil.

Directors Alireza Ghasemi and Raha Amirfazli tell a powerful story across three interconnected episodes of an Afghan refugee family’s generational struggle to make a home in Iran. Corrupt authorities, dehumanizing immigration laws and simply ironic twists of fate each take their toll. Nuanced and affecting performances from the largely non-professional cast and a piercing sense of trauma and injustice that never slips into the melodramatic contributed to Amirfazli and Ghasemi’s win for Best Directing in the World Cinema category at Sundance this year where their feature film debut made its world premiere. DCP, in Persian with English subtitles, drama, 95min.

Written and directed by: Alireza Ghasemi and Raha Amirfazil
With: Hamideh Jafari, Bashir Nikzad, Mohammad Hosseini

For more information and to get tickets, please click here.