During the 2006 World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain, numerous young women are caught and rounded up for dressing as men so they could gain access to the game. Guarded by several soldiers in a holding pen, the women attempt to keep updated on the score.
Mona Lisa Smile (2003)
Katherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.
Ten (2002)
A visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.
Osama (2004)
After the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a preteen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.
The Color of Paradise (1999)
Mohammad joyfully returns to his tiny village on summer vacation from the Institute for the Blind, unaware of his widowed father's intentions to disown him in order to win the hand—and dowry—of a local woman. With the wedding swiftly approaching, Mohammad's future hangs precariously in the balance as his father struggles against his destiny, unable to see the wonder of life and love that's so clear to his son.
Teheran '43 (1981)
This story starts in 1980 in Paris as the memories of Andrei Borodin, a Soviet agent, take the action back to 1943 during the Teheran meetings of Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. A high-ranking Nazi officer developed a plan to assassinate the three world leaders in order to undermine the Allied forces. He commissioned the German agent Max Richard to carry out his plan, but it failed miserably due to the quick action and thinking of Andrei. While in Teheran, Andrei met a French woman, Marie Louni, living in the city and they had a brief but intense affair. Nearly four decades later, the Nazi officer has been captured - but not for long. Freed by terrorists, the officer is hunting down the German agent who failed to carry out the planned assassinations. Max lives at Françoise, a young French woman, who hides him.
Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (2022)
Investigates the politics of cinematic shot design, and how this meta-level of filmmaking intersects with the twin epidemics of sexual abuse/assault and employment discrimination against women, with over 80 movie clips from 1896 - 2020.
Guys & Balls (2004)
Ecki is a sweet, closeted gay man who works in his family’s bakery and plays goalie in his small town’s soccer team. When he both loses the big game, and is caught flirting with another player, his homophobic teammates throw him out. He vows to return one day with an all-gay team that will grind the heteros into the dust, so he sets off to find his “dream team.” With the help of his nurse sister, Ecki scours local gay bars and eventually assembles a hilariously motley but endearing crew of misfits that includes a leather-daddy threesome, a femme Turk with Beckham fantasies, a secret straight guy in love with the sister, and a seriously cute nurse eager for some private play-time with the goalie. Ecki now has two problems – turning this bunch into a team, and facing his own fears regarding his first romance.
Desert Dancer (2014)
Inspirational true story of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian, who risked his life for his dream to become a dancer despite a nationwide dancing ban.
Tehran Taboo (2017)
The lives of three strong-willed women and a young musician cross paths in Tehran’s schizophrenic society where sex, adultery, corruption, prostitution and drugs coexist with strict religious law. In this bustling modern metropolis, avoiding prohibition has become an everyday sport and breaking taboos can be a means of personal emancipation.
The Circle (2000)
Various women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
Close-Up (1990)
This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.
Taste of Cherry (1997)
A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.
Crimson Gold (2003)
Pizza man Hussein is a daily witnesses to the unjust distribution of wealth in his native Iran. One day, he finds a purse filled with shockingly expensive receipts from an upscale jewelry store. He attempts to bring the purse back to the store, but because of his working-class attire, he's not allowed inside. Then, during a delivery, a rich man invites Hussein into his extravagant mansion – an event that spurs Hussein to make a desperate bid for wealth.
Baran (2001)
On a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
Strange Night (1990)
A student of veterinary and his girlfriend meet Sanja in the park, the wife of his friend. The student starts some sort of romance affair with Sanja, which makes things complicated. Meanwhile, Sanja's husband has mistress as well. One night, Sanja takes the student to her mother's apartment, where they suddenly meet her husband and his mistress. The meeting of four lasts until dawn with fights, hits, reconciliation and a game of cards... After that, everybody decide upon their own future.
Give Them Wings (2021)
'Give Them Wings' is based on the true story of severely disabled football fan Paul Hodgson.
Salami Aleikum (2009)
To save his grumpy father's Persian butcher's shop, Mohsen, a sensitive scarf-knitter, buys sheep on the cheap. On the way to them, he gets stranded in East Germany and falls in love with ex-ball-striker Ana. In the village, Mohsen's father is thought to be a rich businessman who could save the region. Mohsen becomes very popular. But then his father turns up.