Sufi, Saint and Swinger
Synopsis
Over images of a young boy playing the accordion in a home movie from 1940’s America, a radio host comments on the trial that was to ruin Lloyd Miller´s life decades later in the Eighties – for charges he was innocent of.
The images of the young boy are quickly replaced with images of an Iranian TV show from the 1970’s, where a sharply dressed man named Kurosh Ali Khan is being interviewed in Farsi about his musical creation, Oriental Jazz. Music kicks in, and now we see the man presented in a video, much younger, playing the santur, a Persian instrument, accompanied by jazz. A voice begins to narrate, in the third person, the story of Kurosh, an American man who is forced by political circumstances to leave the country he’s considered his only real home for seven years. He is on his way back to America, leaving his life as a famous TV host behind him.
Details
- Year
- 2019
- Type of project
- Features
- Running time
- 71 mins
- Format
- HD
- Director
-
Camilla French, Andres Borda
- Producer
- Abbas Nokhasteh
- Executive Producer
- Abbas Nokhasteh
- Editor
- Camilla French, Andres Borda
- Director of Photography
- Camilla French, Andres Borda
- Composer
- Lloyd Miller
- Film Title Note
- Film title should read - Sufi, Saint & Swinger
Categories
Production Status
Production Company
An Openvizor (UK), Bardo Films (CO) coproduction
Abbas Nokhasteh
Openvizor36 Melton Court
Onslow Crescent
London
SW7 3JQ
Page updates
This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.
See also
You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.
Spacewoman
Director: Hannah Berryman
Year: 2024
A landmark feature documentary about astronaut Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot and command the Space Shuttle. Eileen’s incredible journey starts with her smalltown beginnings, sees her smash through many glass ceilings, and culminates in four dramatic space shuttle missions, the last being possibly the most dangerous and most important of them all. At its heart the film is the moving human drama of one family, where a mother’s extraordinary career takes us straight to the big philosophical question of what is the level of acceptable risk in human endeavour? This film celebrates Commander Collins’ trailblazing NASA career which opened the way for women to become spacecraft pilots and commanders, and proved a perfect riposte to a previous generation of male astronauts who thought there was no place for women to lead the way in space. Official Selection DOC NYC 2024 - World premiere Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025 - European premiere
Elegy for the Lost
Director: William Hong-xiao Wei
Year: 2025
Through the psychoanalytic and introspective voiceover of a young post-pandemic Chinese migrant in Europe, the film interweaves her private memories of intimacy with public narratives of resistance. As her reflections unfold, she and her community navigate secrecy, repression, survival, looming precarity, and displacement, all while confronting the personal cost of existing in a world that demands their silence.
Fires and Fascism
Director: Peter Knapp
Year: 2025
FIRES AND FACISM shows the wildfires in Europe are more than just from climate change and mismanagement, but link also with politics, big business, organised crime, and the far right. The film showcases how communities are engaging in direct action, protest, rewilding, and suppressing the rise of both uncontrollable fires and fascist attitudes. The aim of the film is to unite communities in an increasingly divided society. It shows some ways to bring people together for a common cause and the positive impact this has. Featured are the experiences and actions of 25 people from Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, and their actions to build community for a safer and more resilient future.