THE COLOR OF PARADISE

This film tells the story of Mohammad, who after a year in Tehran learning to read Braille, returns to his village with his widowed father. His Father fears that a blind son will prevent him from marrying again, so he puts Mohammad into an apprenticeship program as a carpenter. The Color of Paradise is a painfully beautiful film about a blind boy’s ability to see more than others who are bound by tradition and religion.

GOLD AND COPPER

The story focuses on a Koranic student, Seyed, who has just moved to Tehran with his wife, Zahra, and two small children. When Zahra is diagnosed with a debilitating disease, Seyed must learn about things he’s never considered…

BARAN

The story is set during recent times in which there are a large number of Afghan refugees living on the outskirts of Tehran. Although almost a silent movie, Baran won a number of awards both nationally and internationally for the director and writer, Majid Majidi. Seventeen year old Lateef works on a construction site in Tehran with illegal Afghan workers.

AMIN

Amin is the story of an ancient musical tradition and one man’s struggle to preserve it. It is told using a unique approach to documentary storytelling that challenges the boundaries of fiction and reality. Amin Aghaie is a young modern nomad from the south of Iran. He has dedicated his life to preserving, documenting and teaching the unique musical tradition of his people, the Qashqai tribe, a tradition on the verge of extinction.

HEIRAN

During the Taliban rule in Afghanistan (1996 to 2001) about 3 million Afghans, mostly illegal immigrants, entered Iran. This film is the story of a 17 year old rural girl, Mahi, who comes from a war-stricken family in southern Iran. Mahi falls in love with an Afghan student named Heiran, who has came to her village to work. Mahi’s family is strictly against her marriage to an Afghan. Mahi must now choose between her family and her love for the Afghan student, Heiran.

RUMI POET OF THE HEART

The surprising bestselling poet in America is a thirteenth-century Sufi poet and mystic named Jelaluddin Rumi. For seven hundred years, Rumi’s writings have enchanted, inspired, and enlightened Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, and Buddhists. Rumi’s poetry celebrates the sacred in everyday existence and transcends boundaries of time, place, and religion to speak to all people.

THE WIND GAME

The Wind Game is about love, death and a spiritual quest for a homeland. A young man is searching for his father, and encounters a man who relates a story to him. The young man then has a visionary dream that he writes down in a letter to his old friend, an elderly Poet in Austria. While reading the letter, the Poet is inspired to continue his unfinished work, and his creative process begins.

LESSON FROM BAM

Made 40 days after the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran killed over 68,000 people and destroyed the city’s ancient mud-brick citadel, Lesson from Bam honors the Great Citadel – a heritage that is gone, but a memory that should be kept. Director Alireza Ghanie films the children of the Old Citadel School who now attend class in the open air since most of the community’s buildings have been destroyed.

GILANEH

The film illustrates the love and devotion a mother has for her son and daughter even though the violence of war destroys their dreams. As Iranians celebrate the New Year, Iraqi bombs rain down on Tehran in 1988. We meet the widowed Gilaneh and her pregnant daughter who are in search of the daughter’s husband who has deserted his military post. As the inhabitants of Tehran are fleeing the bomb ridden city, Gilaneh and her daughter make the perilous journey into the capital city to find the missing husband.

FELICITY LAND

Felicity Land unearths betrayals and marital crises in an affluent area of Teheran. Yasi has problems in her marriage with Mohsen, but she is determined to give him a “happy” birthday party. She is certain it will be a great party for all the guests, and will remind Mohsen of memories they’ve had together. However, all does not happen as she planned.

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 32 critically-aclaimed Iranian films with introductions, a panel discussion, and a multitude of educational resources.