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That's a photo of Forough Farrokhzad, the first figure in Iranian cinema. She made The House is Black, a documentary about a leper colony in 1962, and died in 1967, aged 32, in a car accident. Abbas Kiarostami used her poem, The Wind Will Carry Us, in his 1997 film of the same name.

Originally, I'd thought it was a poor translation. "The Wind Will Take Us" would be much better. Recently however, I looked over some of the titles of Kiarostami's earlier works. Dental Hygiene from 1980 and Toothache of 1983 stood out. Perhaps carry us is the better title after all.

Iranian film is bursting with originality. At film festivals all of the world, Iranian film has drawn excitement. Often shot on low budgets using non-professional actors and available lighting, the films are humane in scale and often challenging intellectually. They also give the outsider a look into a society undergoing change.

Under the Shah, the film industry did not thrive. Depictions of rural life and anything that smacked of poverty or backwardness was suppressed. The market was also flooded with cheap Western imports. Domestic production was negligible.

After the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini was surprisingly sympathetic to cinema. His fanatical followers were not and many theatres around the country were torched by mobs. In 1983 the Minister of Culture Mohammad Khatami (now president) worked together with film makers to develop a national plan to re-vitalize the domestic industry. We are now seeing the results of that effort.

Of course film makers in Iran have to work under a regime of heavy-handed censorship. Not only nudity, but kissing, holding hands, and scenes showing unveiled woman's hair are banned. I know in other countries, like the UK, film distributors have had to face a whole raft of absurd guidelines that must be followed. There's the notorious Mull of Kintyre rule which specifies the maximum angle of the dangle of any male member making its way to the silver screen. Iranian censors can't be expected to be any better. Despite these restrictions, or maybe even because of them, film-makers have shown again and again that they are capable of making movies of enormous sophistication and subtlety, with remarkably frank and sympathetic portrayals of prostitutes and other marginalized characters

Following are links to representative films of 3 of Irans most aclaimed directors, Jafar Panahi, Abbas Kiarostami and Majid Majidi. There is also an interesting BBC documentary which includes clips from the films of Forough Farrokhzad and others. The links may or may not work well but I will keep seeding as long as there is interest. Be patient and persistant as I am trying out a new tracker. Let me know if you are having trouble.

BBC Documentary

Dayereh

Close Up

Children of Heaven

This is a link to Azureus, a bittorrent client.