The events of 1978/1979 were a historic earthquake: The Shah – a symbol of absolute rule for millennia – was deprived of power, an oil nation eluded the control of the West, and suffering peasants, dissatisfied workers and an oppressed bourgeoisie formed a socio-revolutionary movement of enormous clout; Political Islam entered the world stage. Iran commemorates these events every year with great celebrations. The staging of the state – militant, willing to make sacrifices, predominantly male – also shapes international perception. The film series “Revolution of Images” contributes further perspectives: the important role of Iranian women, documentaries produced in the midst of the revolution, and early feature films that already carry the spirit of revolt.
An event by Allerweltskino e. V. in cooperation with the Melanchthon Academy Cologne, sponsored by the Federal Agency for Civic Education.
17.30
Café Schallplatte
Documentary
The media images of the 1979 revolution are derived from a few sources that are repeatedly rearranged – and can reveal hidden stories and people. Safarian takes a personal look at the events, their cinematic presentation and the concept of revolution in general.
19.15
Filmclub 813
Feature film
Mashdi Hassan loves his cow, the only one in the village. When she dies, the villagers try to hide it from him and tell him she has escaped. But the loss of his status symbol plunges him into a crisis that takes on increasingly pathological traits – until Hassan himself believes he is a cow and starts eating hay.
21.30
Filmclub 813
Feature film
A group of students tries to stage a play, but the new school principal bans the performance and punishes Kaveh, the director. The rebellion of some high school students against school authority, staged by star director Mehrjui, was often interpreted at the time as an allegory of the revolution
18.30
Filmforum
Documentary
1979/1980: While in Iran a millennia-old model of rule – the Shah – is overthrown, in Poland the Solidarność movement rises up against the communist system. The Swiss Andreas Hoessli got to know the reporter Ryszard Kapuściński, who reported on the revolution in Iran, as a research fellow in Poland.
21.30
Filmforum
Feature film
Tehran, 2001: A magistrate is supposed to hear a female death row prisoner; to arouse his sympathy, his wife Fereshteh reveals to him her own “hidden” life story from the time of the revolution: As a student she is a member of a communist underground group and meets Rouzbeh, an older left-wing intellectual and newspaper editor.
14.00
Filmforum
Television report
In a series of extraordinary ARD TV reports, the Luxembourg journalist, photographer and documentary filmmaker Gordian Troeller portrays activists of the “global South”.
15.00
Filmforum
Documentary
Iranian women did not only play a major role in the fall of the Shah: Azadeh Bizargiti demonstrates their participation in decisive chapters of recent Iranian history.
16.30
Filmforum
2 Documentary’s
Mohammad Reza Farzad deals with the effects and aftereffects of filmic images in an intensive editing process.
18.00
Filmforum
Feature film
Shot and chased by the police, Ghodrat flees to his former friend Seyed, who – meanwhile run down and addicted to heroin – lives together with the nightclub dancer Fati.
21.00
Filmforum
Documentary
Pure “Direct Cinema”: Hossein Torabi films the events without knowing their outcome: Processions of mourning and jubilation, scenes after the fire in the “Cinema Rex” in Abadan, southern Iran, in which 377 viewers died …
12.00
Filmforum
Documentary
The Iranian classical music omnipresent today was not always so widespread: In the 1970s, a group of young musicians – against the mainstream of pop and folklore – worked for the preservation of the cultural heritage, a political and revolutionary act.
15.00
Filmforum
Documentary
As a young man, Kianoush Ayyari filmed a unique historical moment in which the old order is deposed and the new order has not yet gained a foothold. The film editing connects the most diverse milieus of a society between dissolution and transition.
16.00
Filmforum
Documentary
“The camera is my weapon,” says Maryam Zandi, one of the most prominent Iranian photographers. Her photographs of the 1979 revolution are authentic testimonies to the times. With professional distance and no propagandistic message, the 32-year-old captured the atmosphere on the streets, the joy and hope of the people.
18.00
Filmforum
Documentary
With this Arte co-production, Homayoun undertakes an extremely exciting journey through the film history of Iran: important works and film authors also portray key social, political and historical developments of the country.
20.00
Filmforum
Feature film
Amani, member of the SAVAK – the Shah’’s secret police – marries Laleh, a doctor who takes care of the injured revolutionaries. When Amani secretly reports Laleh’s brother to the authorities, she becomes suspicious of him and starts investigating her husband.
