The Best Persian Movies
In my opinion these are the most outstanding Persian movies as far as I've watched. I think these movies represent the culture, traditions and dilemmas of Iranian people much better.
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- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsPayman MaadiLeila HatamiSareh BayatA 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.
- DirectorReza MirkarimiStarsAlireza PhoenixMasoud RayeganAfshin HashemiDr. Alam, a very profiled specialist in neurology and a successful surgeon, is drowned in his professional and social work, in a way that he has totally forgotten all about his son Saman. Samantha the beautiful nights of desert with it starfull sky attracts Saman to itself and the young boy falls in love with night sky and observation of stars. Due to an event the doctor leaves his profession and work behind and goes through the desert to find his son.
- DirectorPouran DerakhshandehStarsTannaz TabatabaeiMerila Zare'iBabak HamidianShirin is supposed to get married in a couple of hours, but she unexpectedly murders a man. The cause of the crime, rooted in her nightmarish childhood, unravels gradually and the real question emerges: Who is the REAL criminal?
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsMohammad Amir NajiAmir Farrokh HashemianBahare SeddiqiAfter a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsFarhad KheradmandPouya PayvarBehrouz AbediniA director and his son return to a region damaged by the Guilan earthquake, hoping to find the children who appeared in his film a few years earlier.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsBérénice BejoTahar RahimAli MosaffaAn Iranian man deserts his French wife and her two children to return to his homeland. Meanwhile, his wife starts up a new relationship, a reality her husband confronts upon his wife's request for a divorce.
- DirectorEbrahim HatamikiaStarsAli DehkordiHoma RustaHans NoimanSaeed who is suffering from injuries that he received in the Iran-Iraq War, is sent to Germany for treatments. In Germany, he meets his sister and her German husband. Saeed and his sister who have not had any relations in many years try to re-establish the close relationship that they had long time ago.
- DirectorEbrahim HatamikiaStarsParviz ParastuiReza KianianHabib RezaeiThe Glass Agency is the story of a war veteran living in post war Iran. It depicts veterans who are suffering from social problems after the war. Society does not understand them and the standard social norms are not in harmony with their personalities.
- DirectorEbrahim HatamikiaStarsNiki KarimiAli NasirianJafar DehghanGhafoor is a Taxi Driver whose son is saying to be killed during war but he is refusing to believe it. Although all the evidences proves that his son is dead and everyone believe so, he still is waiting for his beloved son Yousef. Then one day in the airport Ghafoor encounters a strange woman Shirin.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsYoosef MoghaddamAli AsgariTeymourA deaf old man wearing a hearing aid is walking in the streets of Rasht. When the surroundings get too noisy, he turns off his sound. Unfortunately, when he returns home, he can't hear his granddaughter ringing the doorbell.
- DirectorHomayoon Ass'adianStarsNegar JavaherianBehrouz ShoaybiJavad EzatiA Tehran mullah-in-training struggles to take care of his ailing wife and their children in this profoundly moving melodrama. A film of near-universal appeal, it puts a human face on Iran's Muslim clergy with its unusual tale of a man forced by hardship to become a better husband and father. Seyed Reza has just moved with his family to Tehran so he can study the Koran, and he relies on his lovely wife Zahra to look after their two young children and weave the intricate rugs that earn them a living. But one evening Zahra collapses and is taken to the hospital, where she's diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Scarcely able to process the tragedy, Seyed is left to cook, change diapers, walk his daughter to school and take his toddler son with him to his classes, where peers and elders treat him with scorn. But Seyed eventually learns to cope, his prayers and devotional studies taking on deeper meaning as he attends to the hard nightly work of rug weaving, getting through with a heavy assist from friends, neighbors and kind strangers.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein AbediniZahra BahramiMohammad Amir NajiIn a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
- DirectorDariush MehrjuiStarsEzzatolah EntezamiMahin ShahabiAli NasirianAn old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.
- DirectorKamal TabriziStarsParviz ParastuiBahram EbrahimiReza SaeediA recently jailed petty thief disguises as a Mullah and succeeds in escaping; but has to stay in the Mullah' role longer than he expected to.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsHossein MahjoubMohsen RamezaniSalameh FeyziThe story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsNegar ShaghaghiAshkan KoshanejadHamed BehdadIranian musicians Negar and Ashkan look for band members to play at a London concert - and the visas that allow them to leave Tehran to do so.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsTaraneh AlidoostiGolshifteh FarahaniShahab HosseiniThe mysterious disappearance of a kindergarten teacher during a picnic in the north of Iran is followed by a series of misadventures for her fellow travelers.
- DirectorEbrahim HatamikiaStarsFariborz ArabniaSaeed RadMerila Zare'iAn overview of the two-day doctor Mostafa Chamran life (commander of the Iran-Iraq War, who was educated in America and was expert in guerrilla warfare) this film about Defense for peace in the Paveh (city in Iran).
- DirectorEbrahim HatamikiaStarsHamid FarrokhnezhadLeila HatamiGohar KheirandishA domestic Iranian flight is taken hostage by a man Ghasem who is a refugee of war and has financial problems. He will go any distance for his family and wants to find a better place for living.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHomayoun ErshadiAbdolhosein BagheriAfshin Khorshid BakhtiariAn Iranian man drives his car in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
- DirectorBehrouz ShoaybiStarsReza AttaranHanieh TavassoliMohammad Reza ShirkhanlooShiva (Hanieh Tavassoli) is the family head and looks after her little son, Amir Ali; a witty and playful boy, in the absence of her husband, Behzad (Reza Attaran) who has committed a murder in a fight on a parking space with another man. Now he is in prison and waiting for his verdict. Amir Ali is a first grader and thinks his father is dead, but after visiting him in the prison he gets depressed. Shiva visits the murdered man's brother-in-law everyday and asks him to talk to his family in order to get their approval to be paid the Blood money. The victim's twin sister is very persistent on doing the Equal retaliation and they can't get her satisfaction. Mr. Izadi (Shahrokh Foroutanian), the warden and his wife (Afsaneh Chehreh Azad) who is a social worker also try to help Behzad. Meanwhile, the visits between Amir Ali and Behzad becomes more and more intimate after Behzad gives his son a wooden horse which he has made in prison. Behzad is a former English teacher and teaches one of the guards privately to make him ready for the entrance exams. Because of his good behavior, Behzad gets a three day permission to go home. This out-of-prison visits improves Amir Ali's self-confidence and he becomes calmer and even his grades are better now. Finally Mr. Izadi takes Amir Ali to the victim's house where his mother is speechless for five years because of her son's death. Amir Ali apologizes for his father's action in a childish way and makes the mother cry. But we don't know whether her response is to forgive or to execute Behzad.
- DirectorMohammad Hossein LatifiStarsPouria PoursorkhBaran KosariHamed BehdadDuring the Iran-Iraq War, a disabled young woman is taken captive by Iraqi Baathist forces in Khuzestan Province (in Southern Iran). Her brother, along with his fellow combatants, tries to free his sister from the clutches of the enemy.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBabek Ahmed PoorAhmed Ahmed PoorKhodabakhsh DefaeiEight-year-old Ahmed has mistakenly taken his friend Mohammad's notebook. He wants to return it, or else his friend will be expelled from school. The boy determinedly sets out to find Mohammad's home in the neighbouring village.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsSoran EbrahimAvaz LatifSaddam Hossein FeysalNear the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsIsmail GhaffariAllah-Morad RashtianFarzin SabooniMamo, an old and legendary Kurdish musician living in Iran, plans to give one final concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. After seven months of trying to get a permit and rounding up his ten sons, he sets out for the long and troublesome journey in a derelict bus, denying a recurring vision of his own death at half moon. Halfway the party halts at a small village to pick up female singer Hesho, which will only add to the difficulty of the undertaking, as it is forbidden for Iranian women to sing in public, let alone in the company of men. But Mamo is determined to carry through, if not for the gullible antics of the bus driver.
- DirectorMajid MajidiStarsMohammad Amir NajiMaryam AkbariKamran DehghanWhen an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes into a world alien to him - incredibly hectic Tehran, where sudden opportunities for independence, thrill and challenge him. But his honor and honesty, plus traditional authority over his inventive clan, are tested, as he stumbles among vast cultural and economic gaps between his village nestled in the desert, and a throbbing international metropolis.
- DirectorBahman GhobadiStarsAyoub AhmadiRojin YounessiAmaneh Ekhtiar-diniYoung Iranian Kurdish siblings try to save the youngest of them, who is seriously ill.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsHossain SabzianMohsen MakhmalbafAbolfazl AhankhahThe true story of Hossain Sabzian, a cinephile who impersonated the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf to convince a family they would star in his so-called new film.
- DirectorHamid NematollahStarsMohammad Reza GolzarGolshifteh FarahaniReza RooygariEti, a 17-year-old girl from a poor family, wants to escape her infernal class boundaries with the help of Jahan, a young man.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsHediyeh TehraniTaraneh AlidoostiHamid FarrokhnezhadOn the last Wednesday before the spring solstice ushers in the Persian New Year, people set off fireworks following an ancient Zoroastrian tradition. Rouhi, spending her first day at a new job, finds herself in the midst of a different kind of fireworks -- a domestic dispute between her new boss and his wife.
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsAida MohammadkhaniMohsen KafiliFereshteh Sadre OrafaiySeveral people try to help a little girl to find the money her mom gave her to buy a goldfish with.
- DirectorMaziar MiriStarsParviz ParastuiDarine HamzeDavood Fathali BeigiRahman falls in love with a Christan woman from Lebanon. She becomes a Muslim before her second meeting with Rahman.
- DirectorAbbas KiarostamiStarsBehzad DoraniNoghre AsadiRoushan Karam ElmiIrreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
- DirectorAsghar FarhadiStarsFaramarz GharibianTaraneh AlidoostiBabak AnsariIn Islamic Iran, how much is a woman worth in comparison with a man, and who pays the difference? This film is tale of vengeance, labyrinthine judicial procedure & the concept of "blood money."
- DirectorJafar PanahiStarsSima Mobarak-ShahiShayesteh IraniAyda SadeqiThe struggle of women in a country that excludes them from entering stadiums.