Author Archives: thepersiankitty

Mar20

The White Meadows

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Panahi winning the Berlin Silver Bear in 2006 ...

Panahi winning the Berlin Silver Bear in 2006 for his Offside (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The White Meadows (Persian: Keshtzarhaye sepid‎) is a 2009 Iranian film written, directed and produced by Mohammad Rasoulof. The film was edited by leading Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and stars Hassan Pourshirazi as Rahmat.

Mohammad Rasoulof was born in Shiraz, Iran in 1972. He received a degree in Sociology from Shiraz University and studied film editing at the Sooreh University in Tehran. His first feature film is the docudrama The Twilight, and his second feature, Iron Island, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. He also directed Head Wind, a documentary about the restrictions currently imposed in Iran on using satellites and the Internet. The White Meadows is his third feature film.

In a dreamlike yet earthbound film, Rahmat the boatman navigates the increasingly brackish waters of Lake Urmia, collecting the heartaches and tears of its’ inhabitants. But he remains powerless against their misguided attempts to appease the gods and make the land green again, whether by offering a bride to the sea or forcibly ‘treating’ the eyes of a painter who sees in different colors. Drawing firsthand on the challenges faced by Iranian artists of today, writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof’s deeply atmospheric and poetical film is a gorgeous allegory of intolerance, brutality and mystified routine that resonates far beyond any one state’s borders.

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Mar20

To the Moon

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To the Moon from Mahtab Entertainment “Growing up in Iran where bombs frequently fell from the sky, a free-spirited girl leaves behind her father and moves to America to find freedom.  Only to realize the oppression has followed her all the way to LA.”

  • Cast
  • Solmaz Niki-Kermani as Mahtab
  • Navid Negahban as Papa
  • Nick Thurston as Jason
  • Jamie Harris as Julian
  • Van Epperson as Jim
  • Shari Vasseghi as Mom
  • Nooshafarin Abdi as Aunt
  • Crew
  • Writer-Solmaz Niki-Kermani
  • Director-Damian Harris
  • Producer-Russell Boast
  • Tobias Datum-Cinematographer
  • Yukako Shimada-Editor

 

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Mar20

A Separation

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Français : Leila Hatami au festival de Deauville

Français : Leila Hatami au festival de Deauville (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A Separation (in Persian: جدایی نادر از سیمین‎ Jodái-e Náder az Simin, “The separation of Nader from Simin”) is a critically acclaimed 2011 Iranian drama film written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, starring Leila Hatami, Peyman Moaadi, Shahab Hosseini, Sareh Bayat and Sarina Farhadi. It focuses on an Iranian middle-class couple who separate, and the conflicts that arise when the husband hires a lower-class caretaker for his elderly father, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.

A Separation won the 84th Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2012, becoming the first Iranian movie to win the award. It received the Golden Bear for Best Film and the Silver Bears for Best Actress and Best Actor at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, becoming the first Iranian film to win the Golden Bear. It also won the 69th Golden Globe Awards for the Best Foreign Language Film. The film was nominated for the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award, a rare occurrence for a foreign language film.

Nader (Peyman Moaadi) and Simin (Leila Hatami) have been married for fourteen years and live with their eleven-year-old daughter Termeh (Sarina Farhadi) in Tehran. The family belongs to the urban upper middle-class and the couple is on the verge of separation. Simin wants to leave the country with her husband and daughter, as she does not want Termeh to grow up under the prevailing conditions. This desire is not shared by Nader. He is concerned for his elderly father (Ali-Asghar Shahbazi), who lives with the family and suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. When Nader decides to stay in Iran, Simin files for divorce.

The family court judges the couple’s problems insufficient to warrant divorce and rejects Simin’s application. Simin leaves her husband and daughter and moves back in with her parents. On the recommendation of his wife, Nader hires Razieh (Sareh Bayat), a young, deeply religious woman from a poor suburb, to take care of his father while he works at a bank. Razieh has applied for the job without consulting her hot-tempered husband Hodjat (Shahab Hosseini), whose approval, according to tradition, would have been required. Her family is financially dependent on the work, and she takes her daughter to the house with her.

Razieh soon becomes overwhelmed by taking care of Nader’s father, which is physically and emotionally demanding. On the first day of work, when she finds that the old man is incontinent, she phones a religious hotline to ask if it would be a sin for her to clean him. Assured that it would be acceptable, she continues in the job, but later hopes to get her husband into the position, without revealing that she had first worked there. She finds the work very heavy, especially as she is pregnant. Nader interviews Hodjat and hires him, but Hodjat, who is heavily in debt, is jailed by his creditors on the day he is due to start, and so Razieh returns to work for Nader.

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Mar20

Farewell Baghdad

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Farewell Baghdad (Persian: بدرود بغداد‎) is a 2010 Iranian film directed by Mehdi Naderi. The film was selected as the Iranian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards,[1][2] but it did not make the final shortlist.

The Polish-American boxer Daniel Dalca (Mazdak Mirabedini) escapes his problems by enlisting in the army. After four years when his mission is over, he was to sent back home where he would have to face his past problems. So he decides to desert the army. In the middle of a desert he gets bitten by a scorpion.

On the very day of her marriage, 29 March 2003 Rebecca (Pantea Bahram) lost her husband during the British-American attack on Iraq. Today she’s managing a little restaurant on the Iraqi borderline where she hosts Iraqi and American soldiers. She goes to the landmines to clear mines in order to plant trees and palms at the very same places.

Saleh Al Marzouk (Mostafa Zamani) is an Iraqi math teacher who lost his family on the 29 March Baghdad bombings. Meanwhile he detained and later imprisoned at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison for three years. Disguised as a woman, he plans to blow himself up at a restaurant on Christmas Day in 2009. There, he suddenly discovers a picture of himself on the wall, when Rebecca enters the restaurant. Shocked, Saleh runs away.

  • Mazdak Mirabedini as Daniel Dalca
  • Pantea Bahram as Rebecca
  • Mostafa Zamani as Saleh Al Marzouk
  • Cris Cyrus Saidi as Lt. Sean Miller
  • Reza Mohammady as Cpl. Nick Wilson
  • Majid Bahrami
  • Arya Shakeri
  • Adnan Shahtalai
Mar20

Iranian Actors & Actresses

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Abdolali Homayoon
Adrian Pasdar

Adrian Pasdar

Adrian Pasdar

Ahmad Ghadakchian
Ahmad Najafi
Ahmad Saatchian
Akbar Abdi
Ali Ghorbanzadeh
Ali Mosaffa
Ali Nassirian

Ali Sadeghi

Ali Sadeghi

Ali Sadeghi
Amin Hayai
Amin Nazemzadeh
Amin Tarokh
Amir Jafari
Amrolah Saberi
Atila Pesyani

Bagher Sahraroodi

Bagher Sahraroodi

Bagher Sahraroodi
Bahman Farmanara
Bahman Ghobadi
Bahman Mofid
Bahman Zarrinpour
Bahram Radan
Behrouz Vossoughi
Behzad Farahani
Bizhan Emkanian

Bob Yari

Bob Yari

Bob Yari
Bijan Daneshmand
Sirous Ebrahimzadeh
Danial Hakimi
Dariush Arjmand
Davoud Rashidi
Enayat Bakhshi
Esmat Safavi
Ezzatollah Entezami
Ezatallah Ramezanifar
Bijan Daneshmand
Faramarz Gharibian
Fariborz Arabnia
Farokhlagha Hushmand
Fazlollah Yousefpour
Fath Ali Oveisi

Firouz Behjat-Mohamadi

Firouz Behjat-Mohamadi

Firouz Behjat-Mohamadi
Garsha
Habib Rezaei
Hadi Eslami
Hamid Goudarzi
Hamid Tamjidi
Hamed Komeyli
Hasan Khayat-Bashi
Hamid Farrokhnezhad
Hamid Jebeli
Homayoun Ershadi
Hosein Amirfazli
Hossien Panahi
Hossein Sarshar
Hossein Kasbian
Hossein Yari

Iraj Ghaderi

Iraj Ghaderi

Iraj Ghaderi
Iraj Rad
Iraj Tahmasb
Jahangir Almasi
Jahangir Forouhar
Jalal Pishvaian
Javad Razavian
Jamshid Hashempour
Jamshid Layegh
Jamshid Mashayekhi
Kayvon Zand
Khosrow Shakibaee

Kambiz Dirbaz

Kambiz Dirbaz

Kambiz Dirbaz
Mahmoud Pakniat
Majid Majidi
Majid Mozaffari
Mansour
Mehdi Bajestani
Mehdi Fathi
Mehdi Hashemi
Mehdi Solouki
Mehran Ghafoorian
Mehran Modiri
Mohammed Ghaffari
Mohamad Kasebi
Mohammad Ali Fardin
Mohammad Ali Keshavarz
Mohamad Ali Sepanlou
Mohammad Reza Foroutan

Mohammad Reza Golzar

Mohammad Reza Golzar

Mohammad Reza Golzar
Mohammad Reza Jozi

Mohammad Reza Sharifinia

Mohammad Reza Sharifinia

Mohammad Reza Sharifinia
Mohammad Reza Zandi
Morteza Ahmadi
Morteza Shayesteh
Nasser Malekmoti’e

Navid Negahban

Navid Negahban

Navid Negahban
Nozar Azari
Nosratolah Vahdat
Nosratolah Karimi
Omid Djalili
Parsa Pirouzfar
Parisa DeFaie
Parvin Dowlatshahi
Parviz Fannizadeh

Parviz Parastouee

Parviz Parastouee

Parviz Parastouee
Parviz Pourhosseini
Parviz Sayyad
Pejman Bazeghi
Rambod Javan
Reza Jhian
Reza Kianian
Reza Rouygari
Reza Shafiei Jam
Reza Salehi
Sadegh Bahrami
Saeed Poursamimi
Saeed Rad

Setareh Eskandari

Setareh Eskandari

Setareh Eskandari
Shahab Hosseini
Shahram Haghighat Doost
Siavash Tahmasb
Solmaz Niki Kermani

Solmaz Niki-Kermani

Solmaz Niki-Kermani

Soroush Sehhat
Soroush Goudarzi
Tahmoures Tehrani

Tahmoures Tehrani

Tahmoures Tehrani

Hamid Taati
Valiyollah Shirandami
Yousef Teymouri

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Mar20

Hichkas

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Soroush Lashkari (Persian: سروش لشکری‎; born May 10, 1985) better known by his stage name Hichkas (Persian: هیچکس‎; meaning “Nobody”)is an Iranian rapper based in Tehran.  Hichkas is considered[by whom?] as one of pioneers of “Persian Rap” and “Persian Urban music“.  He has never received official permission to release his music legally in Iran since most western-style music is banned in the country.

Hichkas is one of the first Iranian Rappers that his works has made success.In about 2003, he started his works in Vanak with covering some English Language songs.Hichkas gained attention when he began rapping in Persian about social problems and young generation in Iran.Releasing his first album, made his name much reputable in Iranian community.  Hichkas has a unique theistic and nationalisitic lyrics style, avoiding vulgar words, referring to social issues. 

Reveal and Hichkas Tehran/Iran

Reveal and Hichkas Tehran/Iran (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

He uses Persian traditional music elements combined with western music.

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Mar20

Dariush Eghbali

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Dariush Malaysia 2009

Dariush Malaysia 2009 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dariush Eghbali (Persian: داریوش اقبالی ‎, Dāryūš Eqbālī) better known by his stage name Dariush is a famous Iranian pop singer best known for his warm and plaintive bass voice heard in both ballads and political songs.[1] He is also a social activist who directs a recovery center.

Dariush was born in Tehran , on February 4, 1951 and spent his early years in Karaj. His talent was first recognized at an early age of nine, when he appeared on stage at his school. Hassan Khayatbashi introduced him to the public at the age of twenty through Iranian television. He immediately became popular with his legendary song “Don’t Tell Me You Love Me”.[3] His contemporary and unique style opened up a new era in Iranian music. His past drug use has been publicized heavily. He has since quit.

His body of work consists of over 208 songs in 27 albums. He has also performed many Iranian films.

Dariush has released album called Donyaye In Roozaye Man which has been released on June 1, 2010 and recently the new song ‘Divar’ on August 9, 2011.

Dariush is a member of Amnesty International. Having had the experience of drug abuse himself in the past,[4] he is heavily involved in bringing awareness and support to the world of addiction.[4] Through the establishment of the Iran Recovery Center and Ayeneh Foundation, as well as through websites, educational seminars and conferences around the world, he has used his celebrity status to promote a drug free lifestyle.

His contributions have been recognized by the Self-Help And Recovery Exchange, which selected him to receive the Ron Simmons & Rev, Ronald L. Wright Award, for his outstanding contribution to support group participation by minority communities.

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Mar20

Mahan Esfahani

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Mahan Esfahani

Mahan Esfahani

Mahan Esfahani (Persian: ماهان اصفهانی ) is an Iranian-American keyboardist; he is the first harpsichordist named as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. As a concerto soloist, recitalist, and collaborative musician, he has gained an international reputation on a variety of early keyboards.

Born in 1984 in Tehran, Esfahani grew up in United States. While at Stanford University, Esfahani studied musicology and came most seriously under the influence of the American scholar George Houle.[2] Later, he continued his harpsichord studies with the Australian harpsichordist Peter Watchorn in Boston and with the Italian organist Lorenzo Ghielmi in Milan, and benefited from the advice and guidance of the Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková.

Having quickly gained an international reputation without the benefit of going through the customary competitions, played many significant concerts,he has been praised as “exceptionally gifted” (The Times) and for “the virtuosity of a master” (Keyboard Magazine).,currently he is as Artist-in-Residence at New College, Oxford. He made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2009 as a concerto soloist with The English Concert, and in the same year performed at the BBC Proms’ chamber series and made extensive recordings of concerto and solo repertoire for the harpsichord for BBC Radio 3.

From 2008-2010 Mahan Esfahani was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Currently he is the first and only early instrument specialist to have joined the programme.

Respected for gaining attention for the harpsichord as a concert instrument, Mahan Esfahani is known for his criticism of what he perceives as the many dogmas of the early music movement, preferring to use many of his own editions and conclusions gained from the close reading of period sources, and works actively with modern instrument players in re-creating the sonic world of earlier music. He is also well known for his advocacy of contemporary music and has played numerous new commissions.

Esfahani is managed by Rayfield Allied of London. He was the recipient of a Borletti Buitoni Trust Award in 2009, being the first harpsichordist and first Iranian to do so. He has continued his work in bringing the harpsichord to the mainstream of Classical Music, and in 2011 made history with the first solo harpsichord recital at the BBC Proms.

He also started to make a name as a conductor and director, appearing with such ensembles as The Academy of Ancient Music, The Manchester Camerata, the Hanover Band, The English Concert, and Arion Baroque Orchestra of Montreal.

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Mar20

Mohamad, Marde Tanhaye Shab

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Marde Tanhaye Shab

Marde Tanhaye Shab

The new music video by Mohamad has been released exclusively on Radio Javan.  The video was directed by Solmaz Niki- Kermani of Mahtab Entertainment using original footage from her film To the Moon which she starred in and wrote. To the Moon was directed by Damian Harris.

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Mar20

Shanbehzadeh Ensemble

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Shanbehzadeh Ensemble

Shanbehzadeh Ensemble

Shanbehzadeh Ensemble (Persian: گروه شنبه زاده‎) is an Iranian folk band, formed in Bushehr in 1990. The band offers a rare aspect of the traditional music and dance of the Persian Gulf, more specially of the province of Bushehr, south of Iran and bordering Persian gulf.

The principal instruments of the ensemble are the neyanbān (bagpipe), neydjofti (flute), dammām (drum), zarbetempo (percussion), traditional flute, senj (cymbal) and boogh (a goat’s horn). The Ensemble has delighted audience in Iran, Europe and North-America.

The band was founded by internationally acclaimed Iranian musician and dancer, Saeid Shanbezadeh in 1990. Saied, who traces his ancestry to Zanzibar in East Africa,[3][4] was born in Bushehr, Iran, where he started playing music at the age of 7 with the old masters of the music of the region. He began with percussions, singing, and traditional dance. At 20 he founded the group of Shanbehzadeh Ensemble and won the 1st prize at the Fajr Music Festival in Tehran in 1990. In 1996 he was invited by the University of Toronto to teach a half-a-year course. In 2007 he was invited again by La Cité de La Musique of Paris to teach dance, singing and music. In 1998 he was named the professor and director of the House of Culture, Music and Dance of the Isle of Kish in Iran.  That same year he portrayed himself in Talking with the Wind by Bahram Beyzaei.

Saeid Shanbehzadeh left Iran in 2002 and now lives in Paris.

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