Contemporary Iranian Cinema
Screening Dates
  • January 21, 2018 4:30
  • January 25, 2018 7:00

“The imaginative world of a nine-year-old girl is superbly captured … Breath takes its place among memorable Iranian films about childhood from masters like Kiarostami, Panahi, Naderi and Majidi. Here an insightful woman director’s POV is a welcome plus, along with an astonishing performance by first-timer Sareh Nour Mousavi in the emotion-packed main role.”

Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter

Author and filmmaker Narges Abyar’s third feature is Iran’s official submission to the upcoming 90th Academy Awards—the country’s first-ever submission by a woman director. Set in the late 1970s and early 1980s, during the Iranian Revolution and the beginnings of the Iran-Iraq war, the drama concerns Bahar, a young girl who retreats into daydreams and fantasies in the face of the conflict around her. Abyar’s episodic, visually impressive film employs short animated sequences and intimate voiceover to evoke a child’s perception of reality.