Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco®

The 10th Annual Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco September 23-24, 2017

Click here for: Films & Schedule/Tickets/Venue

Iranian Film Festival - San Francisco, the first independent Iranian film festival outside of Iran, which showcases independent feature and short films made by or about Iranians from around the world, will present 40 films at its 10th annual event.  The films range from fiction, documentary, animation, short....to music video.

Mountain

Saturday, September 23 @ 7:30 PM

Director: Amir Naderi. Italy/France/USA, 107 minutes, Cast: Andrea Sartoretti, Claudia Potenza, Zaccaria Zanghellini, Sebastian Eisath, Anna Bonaiuto

Late Middle Ages. Agostino lives in poverty with his wife Nina and son Giovanni outside a small village at the foot of the mountains. An immense mountain rises like a wall, stopping the sun’s rays and thus reducing their farmland to stones and twigs. Despite all suggestions to move away for a better life, Agostino insists his family’s fate lies there between the peaks. He firmly believes that a man’s roots cannot betray him. Agostino struggles in vain to find a solution to better provide for his starving family. But their lives do not improve, and Agostino decides to challenge the ancient mountain’s immensity and power.

U.S. Premiere

Mohey

Saturday, September 23 @ 5:15 PM

Director: Davood Khayyam [in person], Iran, 94 minutes, Cast:Anahita Nemati, Mehran Ahmadi, Homayoon Ershadi, Sepideh Alaee, Hoda Noorizadeh, Maryam Davoodi

Based on real events, Mohey tells the story of a woman by the same name who becomes involved in an international money laundering and black-market deals.

Malaria

Sunday, September 24 @ 3:15 PM

Director: Parviz Shahbazi, 2016, Iran, 90 minutes, Cast: Saghar Ghanaat, Saed Soheili, Azarakhsh Farahani, Azadeh Namdari

A young girl informs her father she's been kidnapped and asks him to bring the ransom money. Panicked, her father and brothers go to Tehran to look for her. They are unaware, however, that the girl has in fact eloped with her boyfriend and now spends her time in the company of a band of street musicians. Following the arrest of the band leader and full of the love for her boyfriend, the young girl descends an uncertain path.

Wednesday

Saturday, September 23 @ 9:30 PM

Director: Soroush Mohamadzadeh, Iran, 87 minutes, Cast: Shahab Hosseini, Arman Darvish, Nasim Adabi, Hasti Mahdavi

For the longest time, a family has been waiting for the court verdict to be announced for the killer of their father, and now, finally, justice is due. Only the killer is one of their in-laws, and sending him to death would mean a total schism between the two families and no future for the newlyweds. It is up to the two brothers to revenge the tragedy that has left them broken, or spare his life, forgive and mend what is left. Unfortunately, both have a different idea of what is "right." In a culture where saving honor means everything, how will this family manage to keep its secrets from spilling out into the streets? Rarely does current cinema venture to tell stories with such astounding immediacy. Wednesday is a visceral, profoundly affecting, masterful drama, exploring the high stakes when choosing between love, anger, and tradition in contemporary Iran.

Duet

Sunday, September 24 @ 7:45 PM

Director: Navid Danesh, 2016, Iran, 103 minutes, Cast: Hedieh Tehrani, Ali Mosaffa, Negar Javaherian, Kaveh Kateb, Pantea Panahiha

Minoo drives her husband Hamed to see his ex-girlfriend Sepideh as he wants to apologize to her for their unpleasant breakup some years ago. The reunion, however, revives old memories that set in motion a sequence of events that affect Sepideh's life.