Downpour: Iranian Film retrospective at the REX cinema
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Sixty years after the Iranian New Wave, 46 years after the revolution, 9 years after Abbas Kiarostami's death and 2 years after the assassination of Dariush Mehrjui, the REX cinema is offering the opportunity to compare pre- and post-revolutionary films from Iran and to discover new connections.
Meeting time allows us 15 minutes before the film starts to find each other - please be on time so we can get seats together. In Farsi with English subtitles.
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Tonight's movie, from Wikipedia: Downpour is a 1972 Iranian black and white movie directed by Bahram Bayzai. It follows the teacher Mr. Hekmati who moves to a new town and attempts to integrate with the new environment. It focuses on his efforts to improve the school he teaches at, his relationships with others in the community and his attempts to find love.
The only known surviving original copy of the film was a positive print with English subtitles in possession of the film maker; badly damaged with scratches, perforation tears and mid-frame splices. Restoration required a considerable amount of both physical and digital repair.
Restored in 2011 by Cineteca di Bologna/L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project and Bahram Beyzai, the film drew quite some international attention.
Martin Scorsese remarked: I'm very proud that the World Cinema Foundation has restored this wise and beautiful film, the first feature from its director Bahram Bayzaie. The tone puts me in mind of what I love best in the Italian neorealist pictures, and the story has the beauty of an ancient fable – you can feel Bayzaie's background in Persian literature, theater and poetry. Bayzaie never received the support he deserved from the government of his home country and it's painful to think that this extraordinary film, once so popular in Iran, was on the verge of disappearing forever. The original negative has been either impounded or destroyed by the Iranian government, and all that remained was one 35mm print with English subtitles burned in. Now, audiences all over the world will be able to see this remarkable picture.