As we promised, we finalize "Iranian Cinema Through the Ages", the first program for our monthly digital screening sessions at "Café Cinema" with SHIRIN, an extraordinary different movie from Abbas Kiarostami!

In recent decades Iranian cinema has achieved a global reputation for its poetic qualities, mystical thoughts and novel experimentation in form and style, creating a unique film aesthetic of its own. Long-established Iranian filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami, Dariush Mehrjui, Amir Naderi, and Bahram Beyzai, and more recent ones including Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi, and Bahman Ghobadi, are now screened regularly all over the world at prominent film festivals and in commercial cinemas, their work debated, analyzed and studied by critics, academics and students. Kiarostami's film Shirin, meanwhile, stands apart from this large body of work. In this, perhaps his most under-appreciated film, Kiarostami has attempted something unique and unprecedented: to adapt a masterpiece of classical Persian poetry from the twelfth century to the screen. Not surprisingly, it has never been nominated for an award in any film festival.

Abbas Kiarostami's selective Filmography as a Director:

1. Roonevesht barabar asl ast (2009) (post-production)
... aka Copie conforme (France)
... aka The Certified Copy (International: English title)

2. Shirin (2008)

3. Chacun son cinéma ou Ce petit coup au coeur quand la lumière s'éteint et que le film commence (2007) (segment "Where is my Romeo?")
... aka Chacun son cinéma (France: short title)
... aka To Each His Own Cinema (International: English title)

4. Tickets (2005)
5. 10 on Ten (2004)
6. Five Dedicated to Ozu (2003)
... aka Five
7. Ten (2002)
... aka Ten (France)
8. ABC Africa (2001)

9. Bad ma ra khahad bord (1999)
... aka The Wind Will Carry Us (Canada: English title) (USA)
... aka Le vent nous emportera (France)

10. Ta'm e guilass (1997)
... aka Taste of Cherry (UK) (USA)
... aka Le goût de la cerise (France)

11. Zire darakhatan zeyton (1994) (segment "Through the Olive Trees")
... aka Au travers des oliviers (France)
... aka Under the Olive Trees

12. Zendegi va digar hich (1991)
... aka And Life Goes on...
... aka Life, and Nothing More... (USA)

13. Nema-ye Nazdik (1990)
... aka Close Up
... aka Close-Up (International: English title)

14. Mashgh-e Shab (1989)
... aka Homework
15. Khane-ye doust kodjast? (1987)
... aka Where Is the Friend's Home? (International: English title)

16. Gozaresh (1977)
... aka The Report

17. Mossafer (1974)
... aka The Traveler (USA)
... aka The Traveller