Tehran Has No More Pomegranates poster
Los Angeles, California— Willow Films, in association with SoCiArts Productions will be presenting TEHRAN HAS NO MORE POMEGRANATES’
Directed by Massoud Bakhshi, made over a span of five years, TEHRAN HAS NO MORE POMEGRANATES tells the story of the director and his crew who are on a mission to make a film about their hometown, Tehran, but have hit a wall and must explain to their overseers at the Documentary Film Center why their project cannot be completed. They decide to investigate the city’s past in order to better understand the present. What follows is a sarcastic and comic narrative about Tehran’s transformation from a small village into a megapolis of increasing urban mess, pollution, inadequate housing, class gaps and the fatal destiny of its delicious pomegranates. Using an energetic mix of rare archival footage from the past 150 years, unconventional photography, mock interviews and a playful soundtrack, the aesthetic and cultural values of old and new Tehran are brought to life. In the process, director and crew embark on a self-discovery, realizing that while they belong to a drastically transformed Tehran, being a “Tehrani” is a timeless state of mind.
TEHRAN HAS NO MORE POMEGRANATES has received many critical acclaims and festival nominations and awards, including:
• Official Selection HOTDOCS, IDFA, Full Frame, Rotterdam Film Festivals
• Winner, Best Director, 25th International Fajr Film Festival
• Winner, Best Director, 11th House of Cinema Film Festival
• Winner, AVINI Prize, Best Documentary of the year 2007
• Winner, Audience Award, CINEMA VERITE International Documentary Film Festival
Variety recognized the film by reporting, “an imaginative and engaging history of Tehran, TEHRAN HAS NO MORE POMEGRANATES uses a petulant, barbed humor to show how the city has undergone a sea change to become the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Young documaker Massoud Bakhshi doesn't make any earth-shaking revelations, instead delivering a steady stream of irony about his drastically transformed society, where even such an apparently harmless topic as change is subject to state censorship.”
For more information about the screening times at Landmark Theatres in West Los Angeles on November 5 and 6, 2008, please contact the box office at (310) 281-8233 or the event’s hotline at: (310) 310-1746 or visit www.sociarts.com. ________________________________________
About Willow Films
Willow Films is an international sales agency and distribution company for films from the Middle East.
About SoCiArts Productions
Society of Cinema and Arts or SoCiArts, began its mission of creation and good-will in September 2007 as a community dedicated to vibrant artists, musicians and cineastes interested in making their world a more dynamic and peaceful place through their art, music and film. For more information, visit: www.sociarts.com
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
