The 28th Taipei Film Festival today (April 24) unveiled the lineup for its “Tehran: Classics Collection” under the “City in Focus” program, spotlighting Tehran. The section brings together 21 landmark works that trace the rise and transformation of Iranian cinema. Highlights include The House Is Black, the sole cinematic work by influential 20th-century Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad; First Case, Second Case by master filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami, which interrogates collective decision-making; and Brick and Mirror, a seminal work that heralded the Iranian New Wave. Spanning avant-garde aesthetics of the 1960s, the experimental “Cinema-ye Azad” movement of the 1970s, and early works by internationally acclaimed auteurs, the program takes audiences across half a century—back to the first wave of Iranian New Wave cinema prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution—revealing how filmmakers ignited cinematic expression under constraint and forged paths that astonished the world.
This section gathers masterworks that define the heights of Iranian cinematic aesthetics, showcasing how filmmakers deconstruct society through image. In The House Is Black, Farrokhzad boldly enters a leper colony to confront harsh realities, transforming suffering into a deeply moving visual poem. Equally renowned, Ebrahim Golestan uses the story of an abandoned infant in a taxi’s back seat in Brick and Mirror to probe urban alienation and fear under modernity.
Also featured is the legendary banned film The Sealed Soil by pioneering female director Marva Nabili, shot secretly without official authorization. Through the story of a young woman yearning for independence in a remote village, the film employs long takes and sparse dialogue to capture the struggle against gender constraints—often regarded as an Iranian counterpart to Jeanne Dielman—and adds a vital female perspective to the Iranian New Wave.
Nosratollah Karimi’s The Carriage Driver delves into everyday life, using sharp humor to critique traditional marriage values. Meanwhile, Dariush Mehrjui’s The Postman constructs a powerful allegory of politics and power through the story of a postman oppressed by the landlord class.
In addition, Parviz Sayyad’s Dead End adopts a critical tone to depict psychological entrapment under surveillance, while Sohrab Shahid Saless’s minimalist Still Life shook the film world with its de-narrativized realism, portraying the repetitive daily life of an aging railway worker. Amir Naderi, in Harmonica, examines power dynamics among peers sparked by a simple instrument, and in Waiting, captures a boy’s pure yet restless longing through the interplay of light and shadow. Together, these works construct a multifaceted dialogue on social systems and the human condition within the Iranian film movement.
Abbas Kiarostami Shorts: Tracing the Origins of a Master
In addition to feature-length classics, the festival presents a special “Abbas Kiarostami Shorts” program. In 1969, Kiarostami was invited to join the Center for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (Kanoon), where he founded its filmmaking department. Over the next two decades, he transformed everyday settings such as schools and families into laboratories of aesthetic experimentation, shaping the signature style that would later gain international acclaim.
In Experience, a young photography assistant dons a suit to impress a wealthy girl, subtly exposing class hierarchies and social symbols. A Wedding Suit explores peer psychology through a coveted suit in a tailor shop, triggering moral dilemmas between ethics and friendship while reflecting the Westernized atmosphere of late Pahlavi-era Iran.
Among works rich in educational philosophy and imagination, So Can I blends live action and animation to capture children imitating animals, celebrating unrestrained creativity. Toothache combines realism with hand-drawn animation to depict a boy’s fear of dental pain, while Tribute to the Teachers offers heartfelt reflections on overwork and low pay through interviews with educators.
A standout, First Case, Second Case, poses a profound question through a classroom dilemma—whether to expose wrongdoing or protect one another—highlighting Kiarostami’s ability to distill philosophical inquiry from everyday life. This program offers audiences a rare opportunity to witness the emergence of the master’s cinematic voice.
Cinema-ye Azad Collection: Reviving Iran’s Radical Film Movement
The “Cinema-ye Azad Collection” revisits the most radical moving-image practices in Iran from 1969 to 1979. In defiance of commercial constraints, young creators launched a grassroots movement using portable 8mm cameras, reclaiming creative autonomy through experimental and surreal forms. These long-obscured works capture the unrestrained artistic spirit of Tehran on the eve of transformation, reflecting how filmmakers achieved pure expressive freedom amid scarcity.
The program highlights independent film pioneer Behnam Jafari, a key figure in the Cinema-ye Azad movement. Three of his representative works are featured: The Day that Mr. J Appeared, which uses the absurd premise of a foul-smelling box blocking a staircase to create subtle social satire; Abandoned Heights, shot, directed, and edited by Jafari himself, captures scenes of Tehran on 8mm film, using a rooftop trumpet as a metaphor for political surveillance; and his only feature-length film, Mir Nasir and the Ill-Fated Genie, which subverts Arabic folklore to question modernization and existential conditions.
The program also includes experimental works by other filmmakers, demonstrating the movement’s diverse narrative approaches. DokhtarBass Didn’t Want to Be Alone presents delicate emotional and spatial poetics through a girl’s attempt to escape loneliness. Poison River confronts environmental and cultural disappearance with stark imagery, while How Frightening Is the Darkness of the Soul! delivers a sensory assault into the subconscious, visualizing fear, desire, and the dissolution of the soul through intense light and distorted imagery. Together, these works reveal the breadth of Cinema-ye Azad’s artistic vision and its enduring spirit of creative freedom.
The 28th Taipei Film Festival will take place from June 26 to July 11, 2026, at Zhongshan Hall, SPOT-Huashan Cinema, and Eslite Cinema in Taipei. The full program lineup and event details will be announced soon. Nominations for the two major competitions—the Taipei Film Awards and the International New Talent Competition—are expected to be revealed in mid-May. For more information, please visit the official website:
https://www.taipeiff.taipei/tw/.
