Synopsis
A found-footage essay, Filmfarsi salvages low budget thrillers and melodramas suppressed following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Filmfarsi
Cast
Director
Producer
Writer
Editors
Composers
Sound
Studio
Countries
Primary Language
Spoken Languages
Genre
Releases by Date
Premiere
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UK
Cinema Rediscovered Festival
22 Oct 2019
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UK
Cambridge Film Festival
27 Sep 2020
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Brazil
É Tudo Verdade - Festival Internacional de Documentários
Releases by Country
Brazil
27 Sep 2020
- Premiere É Tudo Verdade - Festival Internacional de Documentários
UK
26 Jul 2019
- Premiere Cinema Rediscovered Festival
22 Oct 2019
- Premiere Cambridge Film Festival
Popular reviews
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A film essay on mainstream Iranian cinema before the revolution. An act of recovery with clear political intent. It is cinema as repressed history that Iranian regime would rather forget (the clipsall come to bootleg VHS as it is the way these movies survive) and as such very powerful. Well researched and pretty enjoyable as a film history primer. It also made me think of the strange place of Iranian cinema as it is lovely essay but clearly at least partially aimed at foreigners like me so even tough it deals with a counter image to Iranian art cinema we know, it ends closer to it. As someone who stayed far too long thinking about the state of Brazilian Cinemateque and the fate of Brazilian mainstream cinema memory this year, this hit extra hard.
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I'm sure many of us have seen plenty of (serious, engaged) Iranian film made since their 1979 revolution, but what this documentary does is chart the popular cinema that held the country's attention before then, linking it not just to wider cultural currents coming from Hollywood and the geographically closer regional cinemas of Egypt and India, but to the tensions within Iranian society too, as people turned against the decadence of the middle-class Pahlavi regime. It covers the familiar types, the strongly macho filmic terrain and even makes the case for some more interesting talents among the evident dross (I am particular intrigued by Samuel Khachikian's work). Narrated by the filmmaker Ehsan Khoshbakht (himself a director at Il Cinema Ritrovato) it exudes authority as much as it provides a fascinating insight to a largely lost filmic history.
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been excited abt this since hearing Ehsan Khoshbakht mention it at Cinema Rediscovered in 2018 ... i was not let down! fun love letter, bit of crit and some great points n greater soundtrack
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FILMFARSI seems more concerned with the "filmfarsi" genre for what it reveals about Iranian life under the Shah than as a source of lost classics. It only takes a few films and filmmakers (the director Samuel Khachian, Masud Kimai's GEISAR) seriously as art. With a definite "video essay" feel, director Ehsan Khoshbakht edited dozens of clips (taken from visually degraded VHS tapes) to illustrate his points about character archetypes, sexism, and the changes in Iran from the '50s to the '70s. It hints at a larger project about the period.
Longer review at Screen Slate here: www.screenslate.com/articles/527?mc_cid=48f9ac1853&mc_eid=44d4e196d3.
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made with love, humility, and a mastery on a subject heading toward extinction
the older iranians in the crowd seemed grateful
absolutely essential to the persian history
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Really interesting display of archives of films that have been mostly lost and suppressed, if a little simplifying history wise.
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It's insanity that an entire film genre and all it's practitioners could be blotted out from history. On a lesser note, many 70s Iranian films looked like 50s American films.
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The films of the "Filmfarsi" period "start at B and descend to the last letters of the alphabet." The narrator is so punk and contemptful and it's so appropriate. "Like Z movies, the rooms have no doors, but only a curtain"
Fuck yes — I could watch this kind of essay film every day. Is the essay films my favorite genre?
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interesting topic! unfortunately felt like a feature length youtube video but i enjoyed it and learned a lot
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Easily one of the best cinema studies/film essay docs I've ever seen. Hilarious, enraging, deeply-sourced, and so well-argued. The "Caligari to Hitler" of Iran but, like, better
Screaming at the Orson Welles jumpscare
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A look through the suppressed cinema of Iran, Filmfarsi is an utterly fascinating documentary. Taking it's name from a once-used term, saved for B grade movies and below, this is an informative essay which is told through recovered footage, where long lost films are available to be watched once more. The history of it all is very interesting, from the noticed trends including downbeat endings and remaking well regarded films from other countries, to the bizarre connection to Orson Welles. But at the heart of it all is a saddening story of how these films were suppressed, with cinema theatres being intentionally burnt down while audiences watched films, and how movie stars were forced into exile under threat of death, leaving them to be sadly forgotten about until the tragic passing of some. This is one doc definitely worth putting on your radar.
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from a stylistic standpoint, the "film essay" might be my least favorite documentary format. i know, harsh.
but! i will admit it's still undeniably succesful. with footage taken from bootleg VHS tapes, it makes it's own dialogue on the censorship that was prompted by quick shifts in the social and politcal climate of iran. also obsessed with how the treatment and outcomes of these messy flamboyant(?) sensationalist b-movies of all things have been directly tied to some of the most significant points in iranian history. yay to the power of cinema or something i guess
so yeah things are clicking in my head now finally