BRIGHT BULB SCREENINGS, Free Screening Series
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Thursday, June 11th, 7pm, FREE SCREENING!
Two Masterworks From Two Award-Winning Iranian Directors!
Two Masterworks From Two Award-Winning Iranian Directors!
BEAUTIFUL CITY (2004, dir. Asghar Farhadi, 101 min., Iran)
3 FACES (2018, dir. Jafar Panhi. 100 min. Iran)
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BEAUTIFUL CITY is the masterful second film from Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi (A SEPARATION, THE SALESMAN). The basic premise is quickly established: an imprisoned young man has just turned 18 years old and is now eligible to be executed for the murder of which he was convicted at age 16. Can his best friend and his sister convince the victim's father to forgive him and spare his life?
3 FACES (2018, dir. Jafar Panhi. 100 min. Iran)
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BEAUTIFUL CITY is the masterful second film from Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi (A SEPARATION, THE SALESMAN). The basic premise is quickly established: an imprisoned young man has just turned 18 years old and is now eligible to be executed for the murder of which he was convicted at age 16. Can his best friend and his sister convince the victim's father to forgive him and spare his life?
Although the quest to save a young man's life seems noble and just, each step the crusading couple takes unveils the moral complexity of what they are asking, challenging the friend and inmate's sister on just what they're willing to sacrifice to win the convicted man's release.
The Oscar-nominated director/screenwriter's gifts are on full display, giving each character a depth and humanity that refuses to flatten its characters into heroes and villains as the plotline ingeniously tightens around them. While offering a fascinating look at the Iranian society and their legal system, BEAUTIFUL CITY also delivers some classic movie pleasures, including a forbidden romance, spot-on performances and a number of dramatic plot twists.
“Cross-pollinate an archetypal plotline and a problematic romance and what you get is BEAUTIFUL CITY, a film in which the world is made immediate and kinetic."
- John Anderson, Newsday
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Jafar Panahi's fourth film made under his 20 year government ban, again finds himself in docufiction mode, blurring the truth and storytelling within its narrative.
- John Anderson, Newsday
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Jafar Panahi's fourth film made under his 20 year government ban, again finds himself in docufiction mode, blurring the truth and storytelling within its narrative.
Playing themselves, Panahi and popular Iranian TV actress Behnaz Jafari receive a video from a small town woman determined to pursue a career as an actress but thwarted by her family. Despondent, she films her own hanging, but is this real? Panahi and Jafar travel to her town near the Turkish border to undercover the truth.
Part detective tale, part road movie,part anthropological study of village life in rural Iran, all bound together by Panahi's curiosity and humanism. Underlined along the way are the sad realities of living under the patriarchal oppression demanded by the State. Another enthralling chapter from one of the greats of World Cinema, 3 FACES won “Best Screenplay” at the Cannes Film Festival
“Panahi can’t help but flaunt optimism wherever he sees it—he lets it rise above it all despite the odds.”
- Tomris Laffly, RogerEbert.com
- Tomris Laffly, RogerEbert.com
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