Brick and Mirror (Golestan, 1964): ICA Cinema, 5.30pm
This screening is presented by Cinema Tehran. Ebrahim Golestan's seminal films, which were virtually unseen, are pristinely and painstakingly restored by Cineteca di Bologna with supervision by the director.Chicago Reader review:
A high point of Iran’s first new wave, this 1965 masterpiece by
Ebrahim Golestan takes its title from the classical Persian poet Sa’adi,
who wrote, “What the old can see in a mud brick, youth can see in a
mirror.” The philosophical implications of this are fully apparent in
Golestan’s tale of a young man who finds a baby girl in his cab and
spends a night with his girlfriend debating what to do with the infant.
Though this black-and-white ‘Scope film superficially resembles Italian
neorealism, especially in its indelible look at Tehran street life and
nightlife in the 60s, its spirit is a mix of Dostoyevsky and
expressionism: minor characters periodically step forward to deliver
anguished soliloquies, contributing to an overall lament both physical
and metaphysical.
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Here (and above) is an extract.
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