Art House Films & More

About Elly With the return of their friend Ahmad from Germany, a group of old college pals decide to reunite of a weekend by the Caspian Sea. The fun starts right away as they quickly catch on the plan of lively Sepideh, who has brought along Elly, her daughter's kindergarten teacher, in hopes of setting her up with recently divorced Ahmad. But seemingly trivial lies, which start accumulating at the seashore, suddenly swing round and come back full force when one afternoon Elly suddenly vanishes.

Chess of the Wind A murder mystery awash in period atmosphere plays out inside a candlelit mansion, where web of greed, violence, and betrayal ensnares potential heirs as they vie over their matiarch's estate.

Children of Heaven In this heartwarming adventure, and Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, a poor South Tehran brother and sister dream up a plan to stay out of trouble. After one of them loses their pair of school shoes, they decide to keep it a secret from their parents. But if they're going to successfully cover their tracks, Ali and Zahra must carefully watch their step on what rapidly turns into a heartwarming adventure.

Close-Up In this documentary-style film, which reconstructs events leading up to a trial and includes footage of actual trial proceedings, Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami tells the story of unemployed Iranian man, Hossain Sabzian, who insinuated himself into the lives of a well-to-do Iranian family by posing as famous Iranian director Moshen Makhmalbaf and promising their son a prominent role in his next film.

The Cow Hassan, a peasant, is the only one in his small and poor village in Iran lucky enough to own a cow. He cherishes his cow more than anything in the world. He spoils the cow like a child and lives in perpetual fear that the inhabitants of a neighboring and hostile village will steal his cow. One day, when Hassan is out of the village at work, the cow mysteriously dies. The villagers bury the cow and protectively try to convince Hassan it has only wandered off. Hassan can't believe it. In his sorrow and astonishment, he takes the place of his cow and begins to believe that he is his own beloved bovine.

Crimson Gold Hussein (Hossain Emadeddin, a real-life pizza delivery man who has schizophrenia) is a lumbering war veteran swollen by cortisone (for war-induced pain) and reduced to delivering pizzas at night. Through his nightly rounds, he bears witness to the rewards and vanities of the city's wealthy. He is humiliated when a jewelry shop owner won't allow him in his store, and under pressure to get married, Hussein awkwardly aspires to higher ground. When an eccentric socialite gives him a taste of luxury, Hussein can no longer accept his lowly status.

Downpour When he takes a job as a schoolteacher in a new neighborhood, the hapless intellectual Mr. Hekmati finds that he is a fish out of water.

No One Knows About Persian Cats Follows a pair of young musicians, recently released from prison, on a mission to take their rock band to Europe. Forbidden by the authorities to play in Iran, they plan their escape abroad with a fast-talking music promoter. Vowing to play one last show before leaving Tehran, their dangerous mission takes them on a free-wheeling journey through the city's vibrant and diverse underground scene, home to an estimated 2,000 illegal independent bands.

The Runner Childhood takes on mythic dimensions in one of the defining works of postrevolutionary Iranian cinema. Inspired by director Amir Naderi's boyhood, The Runner is lit from within by Madjid Niroumand's electrifying performance as a young orphan fending for himself on the streets of a port city, determined to rise above his circumstances working odd jobs, passing time with friends, learning to read and running, always running, toward the future. Water, fire, the human body in motion: in hypnotic images of lyrical power, Naderi finds unexpected glory in the world of a boy suspended between modernity and elemental natural forces as he chases his path forward.

A Separation A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.

Taste of Cherry The first Iranian film to win the Palme d'Or, this austere, humanist drama by Abbas Kiarostami raises complex questions about mortality and individual choice and challenges the viewer to consider what often goes unexamined in everyday life.

A Time for Drunken Horses After their father dies, a family of five is forced to survive on their own in a Kurdish village on the border of Iran and Iraq. Matters are made worse when twelve-year-old Ayoub, the new head of the family, is told that his handicapped brother Madi needs an immediate operation in order to remain alive. The family must go to any length to survive in the harshest of conditions, where even the horses are fed liquor to get them to work.

Where is the Friend's House The first film in Abbas Kiarostami's sublime, interlacing Koker Trilogy takes a simple premise--a boy searches for the home of his classmate, whose school notebook he has accidentally taken--and transforms it into a miraculous child's-eye adventure of the everyday. As our young hero zigzags determinedly across two towns, aided (and sometimes misdirected) by those he encounters, his quest becomes both a revealing portrait of rural Iranian society in all its richness and complexity and a touching parable about the meaning of personal responsibility.

The Wind Will Carry Us When an engineer and his colleagues from Tehran arrive in a remote village in Iranian Kurdistan, the locals assume they are archaeologists or telecom engineers. Even though they form an ambivalent relationship with the community, the visitors' behavior and keen interest in the health of an ailing old woman appear strange, and their true motives are shrouded in mystery.