Canaan

A political allegory on four middle-class guys who pile into their car for a ski weekend. A brief stop at a picturesque vista leads to their chance discovery of a prominent rock formation it seems would be oh so easy to tip over, but...

An old Iranian man disappears while searching for a friend who's been dead ten years, so his agitated daughter enlists her estranged husband to look for him; the husband puts his foot down at first but soon finds himself cruising the streets of Tehran with his best friend, searching for the old rascal and cursing all the way.

This twisted Iranian narrative follows a mysterious couple from Tehran as they distribute large bags of money in an impoverished mountain border town. Beginning as a black comedy, the film's mood transforms as the games played by Kaveh (director Mani Haghighi) and Leyla (Taraneh Alidoosti) become increasingly perverse, as they find inventive ways of humiliating the recipients of the cash. The immorality of the central characters is at times sickening, and their chain of lies is often as puzzling to us as they are to the townsfolk depicted onscreen. What is the relationship between the pair and why are they giving away money to the needy? Modest Reception has no easy answers nor pat resolutions - instead Haghighi takes the viewer on an intriguing ride into the dark recesses of the human spirit.

When the corrupted groom starts shooting in the wedding ceremony, guests try to run away. Aida and Davoud accidentally end up in a car that crashes a police car. Aida lies to the inspector that Davoud is her husband and that's where the story begins.

After a confusing interaction in downtown Tehran, a married couple seems to have found their doppelgängers.

Viewing Kiarostami’s lesser-known great film, accompanied by his own interpretation, is like sitting in on a filmmaking masterclass. Invited by “Pig” director Mani Haghighi to go through The Report, the Iranian maestro details his working methods and approach to this deftly crafted, semiautobiographical domestic drama, while revealing the solitude of being a director, and his unparalleled views towards suicide, a concept later realised in Taste of Cherry. This candid, intimate conversation delving deep into Kiarostami’s craft provides remarkable insight on his artistry and worldview.

An orange Chevrolet Impala drives across a cemetery towards an abandoned shipwreck in the middle of a desert landscape. It is the 22nd of January, 1965. The day before, the Iranian prime minister was shot dead in front of the parliament building. Inside the wreck, a banished political prisoner has hung himself. The walls are covered in diary entries, literary quotes and strange symbols. Can they help Police Inspector Babak Hafizi in his investigations? Will they shed any light on why there is always an earthquake whenever somebody is buried in this desert cemetery?

Hasan is full of rage. He's been blacklisted and hasn't been allowed to make a film in years. His star, a woman he adores, is impatient and wants to work with other directors. His wife seems to have fallen out of love with him, and his mother has become old and is slowly losing her mind. Worst of all, film directors across the city are being murdered one after the other, but the serial killer is inexplicably ignoring him. Hasan's feelings are hurt: isn't he the most accomplished filmmaker in town? So why is he being neglected? All these frustrations come to a head when, through a series of bizarre misunderstandings, he becomes the prime suspect in the serial murder case.