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Tag Archives: Iranian film
“Nothing can prevent me from making films.” — Jafar Panahi
It’s his birthday today. Jafar Panahi should need no introduction, but just in case… Jafar Panahi is an Iranian director with an international reputation, and a daunting list of films, many of which were made under terrible conditions (The White … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Offside
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Happy Birthday, Hediyeh Tehrani
I first encountered Iranian actress Hediyeh Tehrani’s work when I covered the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006 (it was my first real “gig”). was assigned to review Fireworks Wednesday. This was my introduction to Iranian film. Fireworks Wednesday was intriguing … Continue reading
“Cinema seats make people lazy. They expect to be given all the information. But for me, question marks are the punctuation of life.” — Abbas Kiarostami
It’s the birthday today of the great Iranian filmmaking master. Paying tribute to him – and the country from which he sprung – feels right, albeit sad, in this terrible disgraceful week. When Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami died at the … Continue reading
Posted in Directors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Abbas Kiarostami, Certified Copy, Iran, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Juliette Binoche
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Jafar Panahi on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show
I am so glad this happened. The language barrier often means filmmakers as important as Jafar Panahi don’t do the talk show circuit. In fact, I don’t think he ever has before. But It was Just an Accident is nominated … Continue reading
Solidarity, or: The boy in the green bandana
In 2011, as a hopeless protest in response to the the arrest of Iranian director Jafar Panahi, one of my faves, I came out of my shell blog-wise and hosted an “Iranian Film Blogathon“. So many people participated and I … Continue reading
“I’ll stay and look you straight in the eyes like all these normal people when I scream for my rights.” — Taraneh Alidoosti
“I’ve inherited this courage from the women of my land, who for years have been living their lives, every day with resistance… I will stay, I will not quit, I will stand with the families of the prisoners and murdered … Continue reading
Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day
Tagged Asghar Farhadi, Iranian film, Taraneh Alidoosti
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2025 National Society of Film Critics Awards
It’s the 60th year of the National Society of Film Critics. We met up in New York / Los Angeles / Zoom to vote today. We also have a couple of fun categories – like Best Experimental Film – and … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Argentina, Brazil, documentary, Ethan Hawke, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Norway, Paul Thomas Anderson, Richard Linklater, Russia
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August-November 2025 Viewing Diary
I haven’t watched much this year, beyond what I was assigned to review. Of course at end of year I have to scramble to catch up, which I am still doing. Instead I watched a lot of true crime, re-watched … Continue reading
Posted in Monthly Viewing Diary, Movies, Television
Tagged baseball, Brazil, crime movies, documentary, drama, England, France, Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro, historical drama, horror, Iran, Iranian film, Italy, Jafar Panahi, Jennifer Lawrence, literary adaptation, Martin Scorsese, Nick Nolte, Patricia Arquette, Roman Polanski, romantic comedy, Russia, Sissy Spacek, true crime, Ukraine, women directors, X-Files
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NYFCC 2025 winners
We met yesterday to vote on the year’s best. It’s always a somewhat grueling process, because it’s about counting, and tallying up all the blind votes. We often go into multiple rounds. But we did eventually come up with the … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Brazil, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Paul Thomas Anderson, Russia, women directors
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“If someone spends his life writing the truth without caring for the consequences, he inevitably becomes a political authority in a totalitarian regime.” — Václav Havel
“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.” — Václav Havel Václav Havel, whose birthday … Continue reading
Posted in On This Day, Theatre, writers
Tagged Czechoslovakia, Golshifteh Farahani, Iran, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, scripts, Shabnam Toloui, Vaclav Havel, war
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