Persian Culture

# Three classics from the golden age of the Iranian documentary movement.

Films by Ebrahim Golestan explore the relationship between earth, people, and the cycle of life in a uniquely poetic manner.
A Fire, part of his ‘industrial documentaries’ (made early in his career whilst working for oil companies) was Golestan’s first major international breakthrough. It depicts the extraordinary effort to extinguish a major oilfield fire, combining dramatic immediacy with a poetic sensibility.

The Hills of Marlik appears to be about the excavation of an archaeological site, but the unearthed objects become a lens through which 3,000 years of Iranian history are seen.

Shirdel’s The Night It Rained follows a newspaper report of a village boy who supposedly saves passengers on a train, an account that is quickly doubted and challenged. In just thirty minutes, Shirdel offers a masterful, incisive portrait of 1960s Iran.

The last female ambassador of Afghanistan and her tireless commitment to the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

Four years since seizing control of Afghanistan, the Taliban has instituted a draconian regime of systematic gender-based oppression and domination—what a growing number of Afghan women’s rights defenders, UN experts, Member States, and international jurists have identified as ‘gender apartheid.’ Through the wholesale removal of protective safeguards, an onslaught of repressive decrees and edicts, and punitive enforcement measures, the Taliban has sought to systematically erase women and girls from public life and relegate them to child bearers, child rearers, and free domestic labor. Despite this worsening human rights crisis, much of the world watches in alarming silence, with some states making steps towards normalising relations with the Taliban. As the women and girls of Afghanistan have been courageously leading the charge to stand up against abuses committed against them, it is critical that the international community commit to women’s political participation.

This event will feature a screening of The Last Ambassador, a documentary that follows the journey of Ambassador Manizha Bakhtari in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The last remaining female Ambassador of Afghanistan, Ambassador Bakhtari continues her fight for the people of Afghanistan, in solidarity with Afghan women and girls and in defiance of the Taliban’s deepening gender apartheid regime.

Spotlight on Iran: an evening of political readings, live music, dialogue, and a fusion of Eastern European and Iranian food.

How do we come together in collective power when, by design, our attention is violently split between different geographies?

Co-learning in Public is a new event series dedicated to alternative political education through shared practices, lived experience, and collective learning. With each event, Eastern European histories and issues are brought into conversation with struggles and lessons from other regions, working towards transnational solidarity.

The first event sheds light on Iran at a time when the uprising sparked by the collapse of the country’s currency was met with disproportionate violence, especially augmented by US threats. Revolution is no stranger to Eastern Europe. We know well the seduction of neoliberal ideas of freedom, where liberation is built on alignment with Western models. We also know, through feminist and anti-violence movements, that isolation is a deliberate tactic used to obstruct paths toward genuine freedom. Iran is being sealed off.

During the evening:

• Writer, curator, producer, and former political prisoner Aras Amiri will read and discuss her latest text, The Eros of Revolution in Iran, which looks at how movements like Woman, Life, Freedom grow out of and continue the struggles of the 1979 Revolution
• Saxophonist Omid Amiri will perform a mix of Persian, Eastern European, and contemporary jazz throughout the evening
• Aras Amiri will facilitate a conversation with the audience about the rise of the far right across different geographies, and how people are organising collectively in response (through unions, art collectives, social and political groups, university spaces, and beyond). You are invited to bring a short text to read (fiction, non-fiction, or theory), or to share a personal experience that feels relevant
• A fusion of Eastern European and Iranian food will be offered at the start of the evening.

WHEN: Friday, 27 February 2026, 7pm
WHERE: Event Space, Pelican House, 144 Cambridge Heath Road, E1 5QJ London

### ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Aras Amiri
I am an Iranian writer, curator, and art producer, born in 1986 in Amol. I grew up in the language and nature of Mazandaran. The meanings of the 1979 revolution, my parents’ love of music, art, and folklore, their leftist library, and the suppression of the regime formed my understanding of the world. My childhood imagination found its ground in writing which has stayed with me-when I was writing regularly, participating in literary scenes in Amol and Tehran, and during periods when I no longer wrote stories.
Since moving to the UK in 2007, I have curated exhibitions of Iranian contemporary artists, published critical writing, and worked as Art Manager for Iran at the British Council, producing collaborative and international projects across artforms and publishing poetry, short stories, and a bilingual art magazine.
Imprisoned in Iran from 2018 to 2022, I wrote poetry and fiction and completed my MA dissertation, The Truth Content of Art and Its Relation to Freedom, under Peter Osborne’s distant supervision. I now live in Jersey, co-founded The Moving Arts Collective, and continue to write in Farsi.
Omid Amiri
I am an Iranian musician and music educator. I was born amidst the beautiful nature of the Mazandaran region, where the forest, the sea, and the mountain come together. I was raised in a politically active family with a profound admiration for the arts, yet I grew up during the dark times of post-revolution Iran. My first two years were spent missing my imprisoned father, and I entered a society where social freedoms and the arts were strictly limited, all while a war raged with a neighboring country.

In a time when carrying a musical instrument in public was forbidden, I found my sanctuary in music. Thanks to my music-loving and audiophile father, I spent my youth practicing freedom, expression, and imagination through playing piano and listening to sounds from diverse cultures and different music styles. Music became my greatest passion and remains my way of life up to this date.
Later in my musical growth, I was deeply influenced by Black American Music—what the Western world knows as Jazz. I was first moved by the richness of this music itself, and then by its history of resilience. I studied BAM formally at ARPEJ Paris and I was mentored by the likes of Tony Kofi and Michel Goldberg, and have spent the last 22 years performing across the scenes of Tehran, Paris, and London. My repertoire spans BAM, Blues, Rock, Soul/R&B, African, Latin and Middle Eastern music, Persian fusion, and electronic music, often collaborating with poets and performance artists.
For the past eight years, I have shared my love for music through saxophone lessons, music theory, and BAM history classes plus leading ensemble workshops. My musical journey is one of self-discovery, connection and sympathy. I have a deep desire to fuse different sources of music, finding joy in the interaction and unity and plural expression. To me, music is a service to humanity. I believe the intent and the soul are far more important than technique; humanity, honesty, and love are what truly enrich a musician’s creation.

Chetori,

This fresh prose translation by Maryam Mafi of 105 short teaching stories by Rumi, which form the core of the six-volume Masnavi, explores the hidden spiritual aspects of everyday experience. Rumi transforms the seemingly mundane events of daily life into profound Sufi teaching moments. These prose gems open the mystical portal to the world of the ancient mystic.