Susan Taslimi

Maya Nilo (Laura)

Nilo is a feminist writer, living an orderly life with her husband and 13-year-old daughter Laura. When her irresponsible sister Maya, whose projects constantly tend to bomb, both "kidnaps" Nilo's Volvo and daughter and heads south, Nilo tags along. The goal of the trip is Portugal, where the sisters’ complicated mother recently diagnosed with cancer lives, together with Maya’s son, who it has finally become time to take responsibility for.

Black Crab

To end an apocalyptic war and save her daughter, a reluctant soldier embarks on a desperate mission to cross a frozen sea carrying a top-secret cargo.

Distant

A documentary about Susan Taslimi, she's an Iranian actress, film director, theatre director, and screenwriter. Taslimi emigrated from Iran in 1987.

The Charmer

A young Iranian man is desperately trying to meet women who can secure his stay in Denmark. As time runs out, he falls in love and his past catches up with him. The film deals with themes of race, class, and the struggle for a better life.

Razor's Edge: The Legacy of Iranian Actresses

An examination of the work and lives of actresses in the Iranian film industry prior to the 1979 revolution, featuring myriad interviews and rare film clips.

Wallander 22 - Angel of Death

A choir of young women gives a guest performance in a country church outside Ystad. But when an 18-year-old member of the choir disappears, Wallander is brought in to investigate.

Bashu, the Little Stranger

During the Iran-Iraq War, Bashu, a young boy loses his house and all his family. Scared, he sneaks into a truck that is leaving the area. He gets off the truck in the Northern part of the country, where everything from landscape to language is different. He meets Naii, who is trying to raise her two young children on a farm, while her husband is away. Despite cultural differences, and the fact that they do not speak the same language, Bashu and Naii slowly form a strong bond.

Maybe Some Other Time

Famed actress Susan Taslimi plays three roles here: Kian, who doubts her identity; Vida, the twin sister, a self-assured artist; and their mother, who gives up one child out of fear of poverty, then deprives the other of affection because she deeply regrets the child whom she has abandoned.

The Spell

A young couple accept an arranged marriage to stop the fighting between their respective clans. On the way home from their wedding, they get lost in a dark forest on a stormy night. They take refuge in an eerie mansion, inhabited by an old man obsessed with the past, and his creepy servant. As the night progresses, they learn the terrible secrets hidden in the house. Similar to many other films in this genre, with a few interesting plot turns.

The Mare

Noted Iranian actress Susan Taslimi plays an impoverished single mother who agees to marry off her 13-year-old daughter to a middle-aged man in return for a mare, which will help her earn an income and provide for her younger children. Director Ali Zhekan paints a stark picture of poverty and patriarchy in rural Iran (the mother stores her rice in a container hidden in a tree; her brother, who brokered the wedding, mercilessly beats the recalcitrant child), but this 1986 film is distinguished mostly by Taslimi's increasingly fiery performance as the mother decides to defend her daughter's freedom.

Death of Yazdgerd

Bahram Beyzai's poetic imagining of the circumstances that led to the death of Yazdgerd III, the last of the Sassanid kings of Iran. His death in 651, during the Arab invasions that brought Islam to this Zoroastrian realm, was mysterious: his corpse was discovered in a mill, but the cause of his death—and the whereabouts of his remains—are unknown.

Bahram Beyzaie: A Mosaic of Metaphors

A documentary film by Bahman Maghsoodloo about Bahram Bayzaei and his cinema, released in 2019. Maghsoodloo's conversations with Bayzaei in this film were recorded in Tehran in 2002 and Palo Alto in 2017.

Ballad of Tara

Tara, the young beautiful widow, returns with her two young children from country to her village. On her way home, she finds out that her grandfather has passed away. She distributes grandpa’s belongings among her neighbours. But there remains an old sword that no one will accept. One day on the road, she meets an ancient warrior. He claims that his clan have sent him to present time to take the old sword back. Tara finally submits the sword to him, but he returns upon realizing that he has fallen powerfully in love with her.