Houston’s 30th “Festival of Films from Iran” runs January 21–29, 2023, at the MFAH. Additional screenings take place at Asia Society Texas Center and Rice Cinema through February 5.

This landmark edition includes a timely focus on the experiences of women in Iran, and a guest appearance by renowned actress Shohreh Aghdashloo at the screening of Chess of the Wind, her 1976 feature debut. All films are presented in Farsi (Persian) with English subtitles, except where indicated.

Schedule:

Saturday, January 21, 2023

7:00pm - 9:00pm: Chess of the Wind (Shatranj-e baad)

Directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani (Iran, 1976, 93 minutes, in Persian with English subtitles)

Presented by actress Shohreh Aghdashloo

Banned and then lost for decades, Chess of the Wind is one of the most singular works of Iran’s prerevolution New Wave. The film unfolds in an ornate, candlelit mansion where a web of greed, violence, and betrayal consumes the heirs to a family fortune as they vie for control of their recently deceased matriarch’s estate.

Shohreh Aghdashloo made her feature-film debut in Chess of the Wind as a sympathetic maidservant, and she discusses the film with the audience after the screening.

Sunday, January 22, 2023

2:00pm - 4:00pm: The Apple Day (Rooz-e sib)

Directed by Mahmoud Ghaffari (Iran, 2022, 80 minutes, in Persian and Azerbaijani with English subtitles)

The father of first-grader Mehdi is an apple seller in Tehran. Mehdi’s schoolteacher asks the students to bring objects beginning with each letter of the alphabet to class, and Medhi is assigned 30 apples. But when his father’s truck is stolen, the family is thrown into despair, and circumstances require desperate measures. With almost documentary realism, The Apple Day succeeds in magically transforming a very particular story into one with universal symbolism.

5:00pm - 7:00pm: Holy Spider

Directed by Ali Abbasi (Denmark, Germany, Sweden, France, 2022, 116 minutes, in Persian with English subtitles)

Recommended for mature audiences

Zar Amir-Ebrahimi won Best Actress at Cannes for her role as a journalist suffering the indignities of being a single, working woman in the holy city of Mashhad, Iran, where she arrives to investigate the serial killings of sex workers by the Spider Killer. Many in the city deem the murderer a hero for “cleaning the streets.” However, as Slant Magazine notes, “Holy Spider [based on real events] compellingly positions misogyny as an unending inherited nightmare, stretching far beyond the actions of one single man.” This timely drama is shortlisted for an International Feature nomination at the Academy Awards in March 2023.

Friday, January 27, 2023

7:00pm - 9:00pm: No Bears (Khers nist)

Directed by Jafar Panahi (Iran, 2022, 106 minutes, in Persian, Azerbaijani, and Turkish with English subtitles)

Since 2009, Jafar Panahi has been making films about artistic, personal, and political freedom, working around stringent sanctions by the Iranian government. No Bears follows parallel love stories about two couples thwarted by traditional beliefs and society’s expectations. Panahi plays himself in the film, stationed in a village where he remotely directs a crew shooting a film just across the border in Turkey, and becomes involved in the drama.

Saturday, January 28, 2023

3:00pm - 5:00pm: The Runner (Davandeh)

Directed by Amir Naderi (Iran, 1984, 94 minutes, in Persian with English subtitles)

Virtual Q&A with actor Madjid Niroumand follows the film

Often lauded as the first movie to emerge from postrevolutionary Iran—and for having one of the best child performances of all time—Amir Naderi’s masterpiece The Runner is presented in a digital restoration. Amiro (Madjid Niroumand), an illiterate 11-year-old orphan living alone in an abandoned tanker in the Iranian port city of Abadan, survives by shining shoes, selling water, and diving for deposit bottles, while being bullied by both adults and competing older kids. He finds solace in dreaming about departing cargo ships and airplanes, and in running.

7:00pm - 9:00pm: Holy Spider

Directed by Ali Abbasi (Denmark, Germany, Sweden, France, 2022, 116 minutes, in Persian with English subtitles)

Recommended for mature audiences

Zar Amir-Ebrahimi won Best Actress at Cannes for her role as a journalist suffering the indignities of being a single, working woman in the holy city of Mashhad, Iran, where she arrives to investigate the serial killings of sex workers by the Spider Killer. Many in the city deem the murderer a hero for “cleaning the streets.” However, as Slant Magazine notes, “Holy Spider [based on real events] compellingly positions misogyny as an unending inherited nightmare, stretching far beyond the actions of one single man.” This timely drama is shortlisted for an International Feature nomination at the Academy Awards in March 2023.

Sunday, January 29, 2023

2:00pm - 4:00pm: Destiny

Directed by Yaser Talebi (Iran, 2022, 71 minutes, in Persian with English subtitles)

In an isolated Iranian village, 18-year-old Sahar is left in charge of her poor, mentally challenged father after the death of her mother. Sahar dreams of attending college and becoming a doctor, but members of their extended family insist Sahar must play the role of caretaker unless her father remarries. A warm and intimate observational documentary, Destiny captures a young woman caught between traditional gender roles and her desire for self-determination, volleyball, and Instagram.

Date: Saturday, January 21, 2023 - Sunday, January 29, 2023

Location: Caroline Wiess Law Building - 1001 Bissonnet Street, Houston, TX 77005

Admission: $10 MFAH members, seniors (65+), and students receive a $2 discount.

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