Middle Eastern Studies

Filmmaker Jafar Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari travel to the rural northwest of Iran after receiving a plea for help from a girl whose family has forbid her from studying acting in Tehran. Amusing encounters abound, but they soon discover that the local hospitality is rivaled by the desire to protect age-old traditions.

ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE - BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - An extraordinary work of both cinematic and political activism, 5 BROKEN CAMERAS is a deeply personal, first-hand account of non-violent resistance in Bil'in, a West Bank village threatened by encroaching Israeli settlements. Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Feature.

The international success of Iranian cinema over the past decades may have veiled the fact that Iranian filmmakers work under extremely harsh circumstances rarely seen in other national cinemas. Filmmaking in Iran is subject to tight government controls and strict censorship codes ranging from banning any criticism of the regime to highly restrictive codes on representation of women and their interactions with men. The imposed codes have undermined the creativity of the filmmakers and their ability to tackle pressing social issues.

“A Cinema of Discontent” explores the censorship codes through analyzing dozens of clips from mainstream and art-house films. It features insightful interviews with 12 Iranian filmmakers, including the internationally-acclaimed directors Jafar Panahi, Bahman Ghobadi, and the two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman)

The Film documents the brave efforts of the filmmakers whose defiance and attempts to subvert the codes have been punished by being banned from working, imprisonment, and forced exile.  

U.S.-based film professor Jamsheed Akrami talks to Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami in an inpromptu video interview, which offers a frank and funny view of Kiarostami rarely seen before.

The interview was conducted over a span of two days during the Galway Film Fleadh in Ireland in 2003. In the first segment, on a ferry trip returning from Aran Islands where Robert Flaherty shot his classic Man of Aran, Kiarostami makes a few self-depricating remarks and draws an amusing parallel between the dearth of women and scarcity of water in his films before he discusses transformation of reality in the process of “framing” in photography and film.

In the second part, shot on a rainy summer afternoon, Kiarostami is shown hard at work capturing the Irish landscapes of Galway with his still camera. The interview primarily focuses on Kiarostami’s fascination with nature photography. He justifies his interest in working in several media as a restless attempt in countering his fear of inadequacy. Later in the piece, Mr. Kiarostami expresses regret for not having enough hair to look more attractive in front of the camera.  

Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, Ajami is a bold crime drama set on the margins of an Arab ghetto. Working with a cast of non-actors in the real streets of Ajami itself, the film deftly meshes characters and conflicts with unsentimental compassion, uncompromising realism, and harrowing violence.

Amos Gitai's ALILA tells the story of over a dozen distinct characters who inhabit an apartment complex located in a rundown neighborhood of Tel Aviv, Israel.

This critically-acclaimed comedy series from Israel is about Amjad, a Palestinian journalist and Israeli citizen in search of his identity. This series pierces the taboos surrounding the prickly, long-standing status quo in which Palestinian and Jewish Israelis live side by side.

In Portugal- one European country in crisis- a film director proposes to build fictional stories from the miserable reality he is immersed in. However, failing to find meaning in his work, he cowardly runs away and leaves the beautiful Scheherazade to stand in his shoes. She will require enthusiasm and courage so as not to bore the King with sad stories of this country. As nights go past, restlessness leads to desolation and in turn to enchantment. Therefore Scheherazade organizes the stories she tells the King in three volumes. She begins like this: "It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in a sad country among all countries...".

In Portugal- one European country in crisis- a film director proposes to build fictional stories from the miserable reality he is immersed in. However, failing to find meaning in his work, he cowardly runs away and leaves the beautiful Scheherazade to stand in his shoes. She will require enthusiasm and courage so as not to bore the King with sad stories of this country. As nights go past, restlessness leads to desolation and in turn to enchantment. Therefore Scheherazade organizes the stories she tells the King in three volumes. She begins like this: "It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in a sad country among all countries...".

In Portugal- one European country in crisis- a film director proposes to build fictional stories from the miserable reality he is immersed in. However, failing to find meaning in his work, he cowardly runs away and leaves the beautiful Scheherazade to stand in his shoes. She will require enthusiasm and courage so as not to bore the King with sad stories of this country. As nights go past, restlessness leads to desolation and in turn to enchantment. Therefore Scheherazade organizes the stories she tells the King in three volumes. She begins like this: "It hath reached me, O auspicious King, that in a sad country among all countries...".