Brick and Mirror: celebrating Ebrahim Golestan's 100th Birthday + Intro By by Ehsan Khoshbakht

This screening will be introduced by Ehsan Khoshbakht.

Iranian cinema’s first true modern masterpiece is a Dostoyevskian exploration of fear and responsibility, the tale of a Tehran cab driver’s search for the mother of an abandoned baby.

With its title alluding to a poem by Attar (‘What the old can see in a mudbrick/youth can see in a mirror.’) the film moves between realism and expressionism.

It features a very rare use of direct sound in Iranian cinema (the detail emphasised by the lack of any score), which complements the claustrophobic use of widescreen.

An unforgettable and bleak image of a society of corrupted morals and widespread alienation, the restored version returns to the director’s original vision, featuring scenes never seen before. – Ehsan Khoshbakht