Author: Bijan Tehrani

For Mother’s Day Throughout the history of cinema, the mother has never been merely a secondary or supporting character. She has often been the beating heart of the narrative, the guardian of memory, a symbol of love, suffering, sacrifice, resistance, and at times even repression and power. From its earliest years until today, cinema has constantly reinvented the image of the mother: sometimes as a sacred angel, sometimes as a broken woman, sometimes as a fighter, and sometimes as a lonely soul caught between love and destruction. Perhaps no relationship in cinema has possessed the emotional power of the bond…

The 7th of May marked the birthday of Asghar Farhadi, one of the most distinguished filmmakers in Iranian cinema — an artist who has become an exemplary model for many directors in Iran. During the 2010s, numerous Iranian films were influenced by his style, particularly in terms of subject matter, endings, and his unique approach to directing actors. Beyond the festivals held in his own country, Farhadi’s films have been nominated at many of the world’s most prestigious film festivals and have won major international awards, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a César Award, a Goya…

May 6th 2026 – Cinema Without Borders announced Father By GTereza Nvotová as the winner of the Bridging The Borders Award  at 2026 SEEfest. Our Father By Goran Stanković also received the Honorary Mention Diploma of CWB jury. Cinema Without Borders Bridging the Borders award is sponsored by 360 MEDIA CWB Jury Statement: The Winner of Cinema Without Borders Bridging the Border Award goes to the film Father which depicts the tragedy of a father accidentally causing the death of his own child. The direction, the acting and the script authentically illustrate the father’s gut -wrenching grief and the public’s condemnation. The…

The film Train Dreams is one of those rare works that unfolds with a remarkable calm, yet deep within, it resonates with the echo of a profoundly human epic—an epic not of flashy, exaggerated Hollywood heroics, but one drawn from ordinary, forgotten, seemingly simple lives that form the true pillars of a nation’s history. At a time when American cinema is often driven by rapid pacing, intricate plots, and reliance on visual spectacle, such a film feels like a contemplative stillness amid overwhelming noise—a stillness that allows the viewer to breathe, to think, and most importantly, not just to watch…

The 21st annual South East European Film Festival #SEEfest, co-presented by ELMA foundation for European Languages and Movies in America, is bringing to Los Angeles, U.S. premieres, European talent, and Industry panels and workshops from April 29 – May 6. The festival will showcase feature, documentary, and short films from the culturally rich area of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Throughout the 21 editions of the Southeast European Film Festival Los Angeles, Cinema Without Borders has presented its Bridging the Borders Award to the best feature film nominated by the festival programmers for this honor. For 2026, Nominees for Cinema Without Borders’ Bridging…

There are films you watch, and there are films that refuse to let you remain the same person afterward. One Battle After Another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, is one of those rare works that does not simply unfold on screen—it unfolds inside you. Watching it, I felt not like a spectator, but like a participant in a moral and political reckoning that speaks directly to our time, especially to those of us who cannot ignore the realities of power, war, and responsibility. Anderson has always been a filmmaker deeply concerned with the contradictions of America, but here he reaches…

The film “The Great Dictator”, directed by Charlie Chaplin, is one of the most brilliant and courageous works in the history of cinema; a film that, in 1940—when the world had not yet fully grasped the depth of the catastrophe of fascism and Nazism—dared to boldly critique dictatorship, the cult of personality, and politics rooted in hatred. In this film, Chaplin not only creates a comedy but crafts a work that is, at its core, a human, moral, and political manifesto against tyranny; a manifesto that, more than eighty years later, still resonates and appears strikingly contemporary in the face…

An exclusive, engaging, and insight-rich conversation with Shahab Hosseini My first meeting with Shahab Hosseini was in Bahman, four years ago, at the home of my dear friend Shirin Jahed, the distinguished Iranian television director to whom many well-known figures in Iranian cinema and media owe a great deal for her talent and creative vision. Thanks to Ms. Jahed, we celebrated the birthdays of Shahab Hosseini, my longtime friend and companion Abbas Yari, and myself—all of us born in Bahman—with a cake and a few candles. From that very first encounter, I found Shahab to be modest, gentlemanly, and warm-hearted.…

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, few powers in the world have intervened in the political and military affairs of other nations as frequently as the United States. These interventions have taken many forms: direct wars, covert coups, intelligence operations, and economic pressure. Official narratives have often framed such actions with phrases like “defending freedom,” “fighting dictatorship,” “combating terrorism,” or “protecting global security.” Yet when history is viewed from the perspective of the people living in the countries affected by these interventions, a different picture often emerges—one of governments overthrown, fragile democracies destroyed, and populations forced to bear the human…

On a night when the global film industry gathers to celebrate artistic achievement, glamour, and the mythology of cinema, the 2026 Academy Awards unfolded with their usual spectacle: red carpets, emotional speeches, orchestral swells, and carefully rehearsed gratitude. The ceremony once again confirmed what the Oscars have always been extraordinarily good at doing—celebrating the dream factory of Hollywood while remaining curiously detached from the waking nightmare unfolding in the real world. This year that detachment felt particularly stark. Across the globe, nations tremble under the weight of war, displacement, economic collapse, and the erosion of democratic institutions. Millions of people wake…