Iraj Taghipoor

Zapata (Cousins)

The third outing for Danesh Eghbashavi was filmed with two iPhones, a small hand-held camera, a GoPro action camera, and the appreciable influence of Roger Corman. This rousing genre blend of comedy, detective story and mockumentary demonstrates that, even in the present day, independent film can incorporate aspects of the revolutionary gesture. In a brisk and complex way it tells a story which might suggest it was filmed by its protagonists as a live broadcast. The sophisticated narrative composition is akin to the process of opening out Chinese nested boxes – the characters know what is going to happen and they provide the appropriate commentary as well. Archive shots are also added to the mix. An explosive world premiere.

Empty Chair

Esmaeil Fallah and his wife Marziyeh, who is also his cousin and pregnant, are worried about their child and they go to a doctor. The doctor tells them that the child is blind, deaf and mute and it would be a torture to keep him...

Beautiful City

Akbar, 18, has been held in a rehabilitation centre for committing murder at the age of sixteen. Now, Akbar is transferred to prison to await the day of his execution. A’la, a friend of Akbar, tries desperately to gain the consent of Akbar’s plaintiff so as to stop the execution.

Dancing in the Dust

When forced to divorce his wife by family and social pressure because her mother is a prostitute, Nazar (Khodaparast) works double shifts to pay back the loan he took out for his impulsive wedding and to pay some ongoing restitution to his sweet jilted bride, Reyhaneh (Kosari). When he falls behind in the payments he flees the police and ends up in the desert with an uncommunicative old man (Gharibian) who catches poisonous snakes for their venom. These two are forced to coexist in the desert, because Nazar is unwilling to return to the city and wants to catch snakes to make enough money to settle his debts. His verbose, chattering annoys the reticent old man until Nazar's life is endangered.