iran

This is a very interesting, hard-to-pin-down film. It's a Persian-language, American-produced and filmed, black-and-white vampire flick. The title itself, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, invokes our culturally-ingrained sense of danger at the concept of a woman being alone on the streets after dark. In this instance, since she's a vampire, it's the nameless girl of the title who is the danger lurking in the shadows. Again defying expectations, far from being a source of evil, it seems as though the girl is the ethical force in her chaotic and amoral surroundings. She warns a young boy to

 Iranian cinema is known for its fine arts movies and the director Majid Majidi is the star. The Willow Tree is a sad, poetic and sentimental movie.  It tells the story of a middle-aged man, Youssef, a professor who lectures on Rumi, who has been blind since childhood. Youssef, under the loving care of his wife, is sent to France for an experimental surgery to possibly help him regain his sight.  While he is in the hospital, recovering from his sight-saving surgery, he strikes up a friendship with a man who is slowly going blind. They helping each other to prepare for the journeys ahead of

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami

It is good to step out of our comfort zone once in a while, and this Iranian movie does just that. It defies the expectations of audiences used to Hollywood cinema as well as European and fine art films. The plot of the movie takes us to an ancient village, where a group of engineers arrive to film a mourning ritual for an old woman who inexplicably keeps staying alive. Only one of the engineers is ever shown on screen, and he is forced to stay behind and participate in the everyday life of the village. The only connection the remote village has to the outside