Retrospective of filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan in Shiraz

Works by UK-based Iranian filmmaker Ebrahim Golestan, 95, will be reviewed in his hometown Shiraz.

Golestan Cineplex in Shiraz at the weekend will screen some of Golestan’s documentaries, parts of his 1965 drama “Adobe and Mirror” and one of his interviews.

The cineplex will screen Golestan’s documentaries at Hall 3 on Saturday evening. The event will include a talk and critical appraisal session by freelance film critic, scholar and filmmaker Parviz Jahed.  

On Sunday selected parts of Adobe and Mirror will be screened at the same hall and an interview with the filmmaker will be shown. Jahed will attend the event to conduct a session to review and debate the film.

Adobe and Mirror is a 125-minute drama about Hashem, a cabbie in Tehran, who is left with an infant on the back seat of his car after giving a ride to a young woman (played by Persian poet Forough Farrokhzad).

After his desperate attempts to find the woman fail, he is faced with the apparent dilemma of what to do with the child. The rest of the film is about his untiring efforts to do what is right and stay out of trouble.

Golestan’s classic drama offers an ideal entry point into the 1960s cinema of Iran which emerged from a fusion of storytelling, poetic images and documentary.

Of all the directors who worked in Iran prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Golestan, a legendary innovator and creative force in film and literature, inspires the most curiosity.

Ever since Golestan left Iran, his films have not been publicly screened or distributed in the country, for he was both the sponsor and publicist of his own works.

After attending Tehran University, Golestan soon  proved his talent in many fields, making a name as a photographer, writer of short stories, translator of western authors including Ernest Hemingway, George Bernard Shaw and Mark Twain, and finally, a filmmaker and producer.

At the time, he was the only filmmaker in Iran who established his own studio. He was the first filmmaker who introduced advanced technology, including direct sound recording.

Golestan migrated to the UK in 1978. He is the father of Iranian photojournalist Kaveh Golestan and Lili Golestan, translator and owner of Golestan Art Gallery in Tehran. His grandson, Mani Haghighi, is a film director.