Videoteca

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Here Children Do Not Play Together 2024
To examine the deteriorating relations between Palestine and Israel following the Hamas attack on October 7, the director walks into the heart of Jerusalem, a city that has been a holy site for Judaism, Islam, and Christianity for centuries, where tension and hatred have become a daily reality. Even though Jews and Muslims live in the same building, they do not communicate with each other and occasionally attack one another. However, the residents, from their respective positions and perspectives, ponder solutions for coexistence and peace between Muslims and Jews.

The List 2023
Afghanistan fell into the hands of the Taliban due to the withdrawal of US troops in August 2021. Upon hearing this news in a foreign country, the Makhmalbaf family rolled up their sleeves and set out to rescue Afghan artists in crisis.

Talking with Rivers 2023
Talking with Rivers is a conversation between Iran and Afghanistan, two neighbouring countries that used to be one land. The two countries are now sharing their stories after they parted from each other, from the era of Soviet invasion to the civil war and the Taliban era, up to and including the rise and fall of America and the return of the Taliban.

Marghe and Her Mother 2019 star_border 6.5
22-year-old Claudia is a single mother who lives with Marghe, her sixyear-old precocious daughter. When Claudia is kicked out of her house for failing to pay the rent, she leaves Marghe to an old woman next door.

The President 2014 star_border 6.9
The President is the story of a dictator of an imaginary country in the Caucasus, who is forced to escape following a coup d’état, and begins a journey to discover his country in the company of his five-year-old grandson. The two travel across the lands that the President once governed. Now, disguised as a street musician to avoid being recognized, the former dictator comes into contact with his people, which he comes to know from a different point of view.

Ongoing Smile 2013 star_border 0.5
Documentary about Busan International Film Festival founder Kim Dong-ho.

The Gardener 2012 star_border 5.2
An Iranian ﬁlmmaker and his son travel to Haifa, Israel to investigate a religion that originated a hundred and seventy years ago. Youth from all over come to Haifa to join this religion, and those who serve in the gardens that surround the holy places develop peace-loving attitudes through their interactions with nature. The ﬁlmmaker shares with his son the idea that if the Iranian people had adopted a peaceful religion, Iran would not be preparing a nuclear attack on Israel, but the son believes that all religions tend to bring about destruction. As a result of these arguments, father and son separate from one another and pursue their own paths.

Doggy Life 2011
About the difficult situation of pets inside of Iran.

Green Days 2009 star_border 7
A playwright Iran tries to confront a creative crisis while political clashes erupt during her country's 2009 election.

Two-Legged Horse 2009 star_border 5.6
A wealthy boy hires a poor child to carry him around like a horse.

Scream of the Ants 2007 star_border 5.2
A girl believing in God marries an atheist, who is consumed by doubt. They decide to spend their honeymoon in India...

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame 2007 star_border 7.2
A young girl zealously wants to go to school and learn to read and write. Almost everywhere she is met with hostility or indifference. The only young boy who takes her to his school is thrown out by the teacher, because helping her prevented him from arriving in time. On her way home she and other girls are taken as prisoners by boys playing as Taliban fighters. They tear her school book to pieces and threaten to stone their female captives.

Sex & Philosophy 2005 star_border 6.8
In the midst of a mid-life crisis Jan, a 40 year old dancing teacher, decides to instigate a revolution against himself. His first act is to summon each of his four lovers, who are unaware of each other, to join him at the dance studio where we assume he is a tutor. His revelations to the women prompt a discourse about love and the fleeting nature of happiness. But when he comes to the fourth and final woman, he finds that his own philosophy of love is not as easy to apply as he had presumed. He realizes that the more the contemporary world has become sexually oriented the farther it has moved away from love...

Stray Dogs 2004 star_border 7.3
In post-Taliban Kabul, two lost children, brother and sister whose parents are in prison, try to survive every day by scavenging for food. At night, they join their imprisoned mother.

Joy of Madness 2004 star_border 5.8
Documentary showing the backstage of production of Samira Makhmalbaf's film Panj É Asr(At Five in the Afternoon), in Kabul, after the fall of the Taliban regime. Everything was recorded with a small digital camera by Samira's 14-year-old sister Hana.

At Five in the Afternoon 2003 star_border 6.4
Nogreh is a young Afghani woman living with her father and her sister-in-law, Leylomah, whose husband, Akhtar, is missing. Beyond the issue of Akhtar, Leylomah is most concerned with how to feed her baby. She cannot provide milk for her baby as her own hunger is preventing her from lactating. Nogreh, however, aspires toward a life in a western styled democracy. Although the Taliban are no longer in power in Afghanistan, traditional forces are still active in the country. Nogreh often displays signs of rebellion, such as wearing a pair of white pumps instead of the traditional slipper beneath her burqa. But mostly, Nogreh wants to be educated. Without her father's knowledge, Nogreh is attending a secular girls school. Ultimately, she wants to become President of Afghanistan. With the help of a Pakistani refugee who likes her as a woman, Nogreh tries to understand exactly what forces led to current world leaders being elected, those forces which she wants to emulate.

11’09”01—September 11 2002 star_border 6.5
Filmmakers from all over the world provide short films – each of which is eleven minutes, nine seconds, and one frame of film in length – that offer differing perspectives on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Afghan Alphabet 2002 star_border 6.2
Documentary showing the life of children of the Afghan villages bordering Iran, and how their life and culture were affected by Taliban regime.

Kandahar 2001 star_border 6.2
After an Afghanistan-born woman who lives in Canada receives a letter from her suicidal sister, she takes a perilous journey through Afghanistan to try to find her.

How Samira Made 'Blackboards' 2000
The film and camera of Maysam Mkhamlbaf, Samira's brother follows her like an invisible eye. From her first subconscious presence as an actor, when she was one months old and crying in her mothers arms, while acting in a feature movie made by his father up to her first conscious appearance as an 8 year old child actor in the movie Cyclist made by his father in Pakistan. From when Samira made her first movie Apple at 17 or when she goes to visit the two imprisoned girls in the movie "Apple" and when she is occupied with changing the professional actor of the movie "Blackboard" with a non-professional actor (ordinary people) and even when she was attending the Cannes Film Festival in the years 1998 and 2000.

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