- Two Masterpieces by Ebrahim Golestan
- 146
- NR
Screening Dates
“What the Youth sees in the mirror, the Aged sees in the mud brick.”
Attar, 12th century Iranian Sufi poet
After a passenger abandons a baby in a Tehran cab, the driver’s search for the mother becomes an existential quest. Brick and Mirror by Ebrahim Golestan (1922–2023) examines fear, responsibility, and moral paralysis in the long shadow of the 1953 coup d’état. Golestan’s first feature confronts the rapidly shifting climate of Iranian society in the mid-1960s, the failures of its intellectual class, and the corruption woven through daily life. In creating this film, Golestan shaped Iran’s first modern cinematic masterpiece; no earlier Iranian film had so boldly fused poetic vision and the fragility of romantic reconciliation with the stark realities of urban despair. A giant of modern Persian literature, as well as the translator of Lenin, Dostoevsky, and Faulkner, Golestan produced this widescreen film in his own newly built Golestan Film Studio. Brick and Mirror is preceded by Crown Jewels of Iran, Golestan’s controversial short film. —Arya Ghavamian
Crown Jewels of Iran
گنجینههای گوهر
Iran 1965
Ebrahim Golestan
15 min. DCP
In Farsi with English subtitles
Brick and Mirror
خشت و آینه
Iran 1964
Ebrahim Golestan
131 min. DCP
In Farsi with English subtitles
Co-presented with Cinema Tehran
Media
Note
Cinema Tehran is a pop-up cinema inspired by the era of 1970s cinemas in Iran’s capital. This project represents the reemergence of the spirit of the metropolitan theaters of Tehran, and is the continuation of the cult dance party and concert series hosted by Disco Tehran. Cinema Tehran features a multi-cultural selection of films, bringing together classics of world cinema with new visions from emerging talents. This series has been created and curated by Arya Ghavamian, the co-founder of Disco Tehran.