UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema at Hammer Museum is featuring 3 films by Parviz Sayyad this month.
The festival presents:
Dead End on Sunday, April 22nd at 7 pm
Samad Becomes an Artist on Friday, April 27th at 7:30 pm
Checkpoint on Saturday, April 28th at 7:30 pm
The 3 films show very different aspects of Iranian society both pre and post the Islamic Revolution and have universal messages very relevant to all of us today regardless of cultural background.
There will be an engaging Question & Answer session with Parviz Sayyad after each film. Come let’s support this legend of the Iranian Cinema and a truly brave voice among us!
Dead End (Bon Bast) – Drama
April 22, 2012 – 7:00 pm
In-person: Filmmaker Parviz Sayyad
Directed by Parviz Sayyad, 1977
This provocative and highly poetic film stars Mary Apick (best actress winner at the Moscow International Film Festival) as a young woman who attracts the attentions of a mysterious suitor haunting the dead end street where she lives. Warming to his attentions, she learns that he is not what he seems to be, and that she and her family may be in danger. 
In Persian with English subtitles, 95 min
Samad Becomes an Artist – (Samad Artist Mishavad) – Comedy
April 27, 2012 – 7:30 pm
In-person: filmmaker Parviz Sayyad
Directed by Parviz Sayyad, 1974
Parviz Sayyad created and appeared in a string of highly popular Iranian features in the 1970s Iran about “Samad,” an unsophisticated but street-smart, rural man encountering city life and modernity with hilarious results. The popular character here encounters the possibility of fame through a visiting film crew seeking actors among the local villagers. The broad comedy foregrounds the social climate of pre-revolutionary Iran.
In Persian with English subtitles, 114 min
Checkpoint – Thriller
April 28, 2012 – 7:30 pm
In-person: Filmmaker Parviz Sayyad
Directed by Parviz Sayyad, 1987
A busload of College students, returning to Michigan from a Canadian field trip, is stopped at the US border at the time of the Iranian hostage crisis. The group includes a number of Iranian passengers, divided along ideological lines, whose debates about policy and politics soon lead to a full-scale confrontation showing the many passionate voices and views that make up the Iranian identity.
In English and Persian with English subtitles, 91 min