The Selection: Iran

"Lily" (Leila Hatami) is a movie star whose husband had died recently. She thinks he's still alive and feels him everywhere. Suddenly, she is on the set of her new movie and starts laughing in front of the camera.

The movie revolves around the life of a tax collector who is accused of taking bribes, and also has to deal with problems at home, including the suicide attempt of his wife.

Hamoon's wife is leaving him. He is also unsuccessfully trying to finish his Ph.D. thesis. He is forced to reexamine his life. In a series of flashbacks and dreams, Hamoon tries to figure out what he did wrong.

Late-shift taxi driver Ali works the 'mean streets' of Tehran and in the process he encounters a wide variety of people. The taciturn, disconsolate man meets the owner of the last traditional café in the city, Denis, and the lovely Leila, both of whom start to play an important role among his customers. Ali gets closer to the secretive young woman due to their similar personalities and deep internal isolation. While waiting for an anticipated earthquake to happen, the only apocalypse to shake his deliberately enclosed world is the truth about his love.

Story of a young lawyer in Tehran in search of a visa to leave the country, which is what Mohammad Rasoulof did during the winter of 2010/11.

Directed by multi-award winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, 'Beautiful City' is a cinematic gem not to be missed. Akbar has just turned eighteen. He has been held in a rehabilitation centre for committing murder at the age of sixteen when he was condemned to death. Legally speaking, he had to reach the age of eighteen so that the conviction could be carried out. Now, Akbar is transferred to prison to await the day of his execution. A'la, a friend of Akbar, who himself has undergone imprisonment for burglary, soon after his release tries desperately to gain the consent of Akbar's plaintiff so as to stop the execution. 'Beautiful City' is a simple film about the power of forgiveness.

On a pilgrimage to Mashad from Tehran, a couple's transportation breaks down, far from any major town. The husband, a photographer, seeks help at a nearby village and encounters a teacher who offers to help. Whilst the husband and teacher go off to find a spare part, the wife, who used to be a teacher, takes over the teaching lessons in the village. It is clear that the children live there, in this strange deserted place, without any men, save the teacher and an old signal guard. As the day draws on, the children help to bring a new hope and life into the wife's heart.

The wife of Nasim, an Afghan immigrant in Iran, is gravely ill. He needs money to pay for her care, but his day labor digging wells does not pay enough. A friend connects Nasim to a two-bit promoter who sells tickets to watch Nasim ride a bicycle continuously for a week. The promoter brings in sick and aged spectators, haranguing them to find hope in Nasim's strength. Aided by his son, who feeds him as he rides, Nasim grinds out the days and shivering nights. Local officials believe this may be a plot and Nasim may be a spy; they try to sabotage him as do those who bet he won't finish the week. Will desperation alone get Nasim the money? Is any triumph an illusion?

Ten, the latest film by Iranian master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, focuses on ten conversations between a female driver in Tehran and the passengers in her car. Her exchanges with her young son, a jilted bride, a prostitute, a women on her way to prayer and others, shed light on the lives and emotions of these women whose voices are seldom heard.

As a young protagonist embarks on a humble quest, a beautiful allegory of friendship and morality is revealed. The first film in Kiarostami's Koker trilogy, Where is the Friend's Home? is a unique mélange of poetry, documentary and fiction, that cherishes the everyday in all its abundance.

In

When a young girl becomes lost in the hustle and bustle of Tehran, her journey turns into a dazzling exercise on the nature of film itself. In this ingenious and daringly original feature, world renowned director Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon, Crimson gold) has wrapped a blunt political critique inside the layers of a deceptively simple film.

Fourteen-year-old Mehrollah's father is killed while a passenger on the motorcycle that Mehrollah is learning to ride. To support his family, Mehrollah takes a job in the city. Upon returning for a visit, he learns from his friend Latif that his mother has remarried to a policeman and moved to a larger house. This deeply angers Mehrollah, who refuses to accept his new step father; he also becomes bitter towards his mother. Taking up residence in the family's former home, Mehrollah kidnaps his young sisters, only to have his friend Latif betray their location. Latif acts as the go between for Mehrollah and his estranged family. When Mehrollah is injured, Latif summons his step father, who takes Mehrollah home to recover. As he gets better, he steals his stepfather's service revolver, and flees to the city with Latif. The step father heads to the city on motorcycle and arrests both of the boys. Placing Latif on a bus, he takes Mehrollah back home on his motorcycle, but on the way the motorcycle breaks down and they become stranded in the desert. Through the extreme hardship that follows, Mehrollah slowly softens, and comes to accept his stepfather.

A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.

Amiro is a young boy who has lost his home during the war. He spends his days by working odd jobs, until he realizes that the only way that he can realize his dreams is by enrolling in school. In school, he has conflict with other students. Finally there is a competition to see who can say the whole alphabet in one breath.

Masht Hassan owns the only cow in a remote and desolate village. He treats the cow as his own child. When he is away, his cow dies. Knowing the relationship between Masht Hassan and his cow, the villagers hastily dispose the corpse, and when Masht Hassan comes back, they tell him that his cow ran away. Masht Hassan is devastated, he starts to spend all his time in the barn, eating hay, and slowly believes that he is the cow.

When forced to divorce his wife by family and social pressure because her mother is a prostitute, Nazar (Khodaparast) works double shifts to pay back the loan he took out for his impulsive wedding and to pay some ongoing restitution to his sweet jilted bride, Reyhaneh (Kosari). When he falls behind in the payments he flees the police and ends up in the desert with an uncommunicative old man (Gharibian) who catches poisonous snakes for their venom. These two are forced to coexist in the desert, because Nazar is unwilling to return to the city and wants to catch snakes to make enough money to settle his debts. His verbose, chattering annoys the reticent old man until Nazar's life is endangered.

Upon returning home to Iran after more than two decades abroad, visiting professor Arash is quickly thrust into a past he's spent his whole life trying to escape.