Projects

Synopsis

“Filmfarsi was the cinema of a nation with a split personality”, says filmmaker Ehsan Khoshbakht in this film-critical history of Iran under the Shah. Khoshbakht’s found-footage essay film salvages low budget thrillers and melodramas suppressed following the 1979 Islamic revolution. These films defined Iranian cinema in the 1960s and '70s, when the industry shared an equal percentage of the market with the USA. Little more than VHS rips remain. Khoshbakht here uncovers that which was thought destroyed. A cinema of titillation, action and big emotions, which also presented a troubling mirror for the country, as Iran struggled to reconcile its religious traditions with the turbulence of modernity, and the influences of the West. The often cheap, sleazy and derivative films offer an insight into Iran’s psyche. Among the scratched reels, some keystones of Iran’s extraordinary film culture emerge, too: Gheysar, whose title design was done by a young Abbas Kiarostami; the work of director Samuel Khachikian, a progenitor of Iranian noir; and The Deer, a film which more than any other symbolises the historic violent turns in Iran’s recent past. Filmfarsi presaged a revolution, and it became one of its first victims. — Yusef Sayed

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As a world-renowned professional killer tests out his latest fly-killing machine, he comes face to face with a fly that refuses to die...

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Built by award-winning VR creators and an Oscar-winning practical effects team, FLY enables you to become a time-travelling pilot - from the earliest imaginings of Leonardo Da Vinci, to the Wright Brothers’ success on Kitty Hawk Beach, to piloting Concorde and, finally, into one imagined future of flight.

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A confrontation between two swimmers in a locker room ends in tears. A collaboration with London-based musicians GUO. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Official Short Film Competition - Dare Strand

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Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy designed New Gourna in 1954, introducing ecological principles for mud architecture to Egypt. He dreamt that rural populations might have sustainable lives. Stills and an experimental soundtrack take a haunting look at efforts from the 1940s in sustainability in the Middle East. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2020 - Perspectives

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Lycanthropy is a dark investigative thriller short film, which follows detectives Mark Kessler and John Mills, as they search for a missing girl. When the case comes to a standstill, Kessler decides to take matters into his own hands...

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A film on on the lives, loves and dreams of contemporary Chinese and Europeans, showing how they are both very different, yet at the same time very much the same.

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A film that considers the effects of amnesia. Through the lens of alien abduction, mesmerism, the radio frequency detritus of cold war history, and Britain's decolonial process in Kenya, the film weaves an expressionistic account of memory loss and the trauma often involved with its recovery. Official Selection International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) 2020 - Bright Future

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An optimistic declaration of a young seven-year-old's truth.

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Geoff, Dan and Isaac are three wheelchair users who embark on a mission to conquer the Swiss Alps, and prove that having a disability won’t tame their sense of adventure. Information on Upcoming Screenings:

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A story about the two demons that shadow youth: anxiety and loneliness, and one 18-year- old’s struggle to fight them in an extreme fashion.

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A couple looks hopefully into the future. They soon discover the obstacles they must overcome to be accepted. As generations evolve their position alters in what was once a foreign land. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2019 - Journey Strand