Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave (4–25 Feb) is a stunning showcase of nine ground-breaking films thatemerged from Cinema-ye Motafavet, or Iranian New Wave, the grassroots movement in Iranian documentary and fiction filmmaking. Produced in the 1960s and 70s, these Iranian arthouse films – made by a small group of young, collaborative and mostly self-taught filmmakers – were set against the backdrop of the last Shah’s reign, reflecting the era’s complex and often contradictory emotions toward modernisation. Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave is curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht who will introduce the seasons’ films, all of which take place in Barbican’s Cinema 1.
Ehsan Khoshbakht, season curator, says: “The collaborative spirit of these Iranian filmmakers created a remarkable coherence unparalleled in Middle Eastern cinema. Almost always subversive, these films reveal the contradictions of Iranian life with haunting clarity. They not only capture the genesis of an Iranian cinematic revolution but also foreshadow the social and political upheavals that culminated in the 1979 revolution. Tragically, this same revolution would lead to the banning of many of these trailblazing films.”
Alex Davidson, Acting Head of Cinema, Barbican, says: “Seeing these remarkable films, almost all of which have been newly restored, has been a revelation – ‘masterpiece’ is an over-used word, but here it is entirely appropriate. From films by established creatives such as Forough Farrokhzad, Ebrahim Golestan and Abbas Kiarostami to lesser-known titles, including the earliest surviving Iranian full-length feature to be directed by a woman (The Sealed Soil), this fantastic season is one of the highlights of our spring programme”.
The opening double-bill event for Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave on 4 February
showcases the early collaborative experiences of New Wave masters Abbas Kiarostami and Amir Naderi with two autobiographical coming-of-age tales which radiate a euphoric view of life and cinema. Both films were produced by Kanoon, where the two filmmakers shared an office.
In Kiarostami’s debut feature film Experience (Tajrobeh), he collaborated with Naderi (as co-writer) on a story reflecting Naderi’s own early days in Tehran after moving from southern Iran. A year later, Naderi’s dialogue-free Waiting (Entezar) marked a departure from the realism of his previous films, blending illusory images of his youth in the south with documentary moments.
Closing the season on 25 February is a double-bill of two trailblazing films that are among the very few feature and documentary films directed by women in Iran before the 1979 revolution and now claimed as some of the greatest films of their time. Bookending the beginning and final years of Iranian New Wave, The House Is Black (Khaneh siah ast) made in 1962 by the feminist poet Forough Farrokhzad, shows uncommon allyship towards people with leprosy that became one of the first international successes of the Iranian New Wave, and Marva Nabili’s recently rediscovered The Sealed Soil (Khak-e sar bé mohr) made in 1977 is a measured and restrained rebellion against patriarchy shot in Iran but edited in New York shortly before the revolution.
The season also has many rare highlights, including Iranian’s cinema’s first true modern masterpiece Brick and Mirror (Khesht o ayeneh) directed by Ebrahim Golestan which explores fear and responsibility in the wake of the 1953 coup orchestrated by the CIA and MI6. Impossible to see for decades, Bahram Beyzaie‘s dazzling The Stranger and the Fog(Gharibeh va meh) is an endlessly symbolic tale that pays tribute to the cinema of Akira Kurosawa in the most unexpected ways. Sohrab Shahid Saless’ meditation on social isolation depicts the painful repetitiveness of an immigrant’s day-to-day existence in Far From Home (Dar ghorbat); and Ebrahim Golestan’s subversive and once-banned short documentary The Crown Jewels of Iran (Ganjineha-ye gohar) and Mohammad Reza Aslani’s debut feature, Chess of the Wind (Shatranj-e baad) are two suppressed masterpieces, now restored to their true glory, that not only showcase the use of colour in Iranian cinema but despite their visual splendour delve into the roots of decadence.
Get your tickets here: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/series/masterpieces-of-the-iranian-new-wave
WRITTEN BY: Nura Arooj
