Thanks to generosity of the listed sponsors, NETPAC is proud to present an educational program for universities, institutions and individuals interested in understanding Persian culture through film. This includes 24 critically-aclaimed Iranian films with introductions, a panel discussion, and a multitude of educational resources.

Gently biting social comedy on the shared expectations of Persian hospitality. A mother of a poor family has guests coming for dinner, yet doesn’t know how to get the dinner party organized without calling in the resources of the whole neighborhood, centered on the communal courtyard of their traditional apartment building.

After administering rigorous examinations in science, religion and politics, the Iranian government assigns a handful of men from the nation’s unemployed millions to the undignified job of street-cleaning. The crew is made up of ambitious young dreamers, including a pilot who stares into the sky and a musician who conducts over an orchestra of trash. One, a childlike poet, assembles scraps of a beautiful widow’s unsent letters and reads of her lonely hopelessness.

A young man repeatedly tries to kill himself. Two blind man rope him in for a jewelry heist. The policemen try to capture them. A runaway couple. Two hitmen. A medical student, her pet fish, and a charmed ring. The many characters in this film meet, showing the causality of each of their actions.

There are just three days left until the commencement of the Fajr International Film Festival. Everyone, including the film making crew, are doing their best to get the film ready for showing at the Festival, but there are many issues and endless problems along the way to confront.

Behnaz Jafari is a 24-year-old girl who has studied dramatic literature and plays parts in movies and TV programs. At 5 her father abandoned the family, and a few years ago she lost her mother. Now she lives by herself in Tehran.

A famous Iranian director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, makes merriment out of mayhem when more than 5,000 wannabes show up for a casting call for 100 actors advertised in a Tehran newspaper. The mass of hopefuls try to push and shove their way in, and a riot ensues. Makhmalbaf suspected it, but this truly confirms his hunch that there is a movie star wish in everyone, if given the chance.

Filmed in a woman’s restroom located in a public park in Iran’s metropolitan center of Tehran, this documentary explodes Western stereotyping of women in Iran.

After reading a book written by a 12th century ascetic, Pari, a student of literature and theater at one of Tehran’s universities, becomes obsessed with plumbing the depths of the spiritual and mystical dimension. Pari’s obsession becomes so intense that she begins to lose all interest in the outside world and even entertains thoughts of committing suicide, as her elder brother Assad had done. The young woman’s remaining brother (who also had to overcome his own obsession with mysticism) tries to bring Pari back from the verge of a nervous breakdown.

‘Lady of the Roses’ is the name given to the late Shahindokht Sanati, a lady who went to the Lalehzaar region of Kerman before the Islamic revolution. She replaced poppies with roses and opium with rosewater, and took this so far as to transform the agricultural destiny of a whole region…

This documentary features Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian activist who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize award for her efforts promoting human rights in Iran. It presents a realistic picture of shifting identities for Iranian women today and defies stereotypes by showing a variety of Iranian women in rural and urban areas, educated and uneducated, devout and not, young and old – all with strong points of views about what it is like to be a woman in contemporary Iran.