Author: Bijan Tehrani

Ingmar Bergman is the child of a silence that emerged whispering from the heart of darkness; the child of a light shining through an invisible window into the abandoned cellar of the human mind, illuminating a memory hidden in the shadows. His birthday is not the anniversary of a man’s birth, but the birth of a question: the birth of doubt—a doubt suspended forever between faith and the death of faith, between the body and the soul, between truth and dream. For me, born in the East amid philosophy, mysticism, and the poetry of Rumi and Sohrab Sepehri, Bergman’s world…

These two images on the wall of my home enchant me—they are precious mementos, gifts from my dear artist friend Abbas Bagherian, whose works have eternally captured a wondrous world of dreamlike glimpses of life. These beautiful and evocative pictures invite me, with every glance, into a new moment of revelation. Abbas Bagherian, the imaginative and talented Iranian photographer, is among those rare artists who treat the camera not merely as a tool for recording reality, but as a brush for painting the world of their vision. The result feels like a dreamy painting on canvas, infused with the hues…

Hayedeh Safiyari and Soren B. Ebbe won Best Editing in a Documentary Feature at 2025 Tribeca Intwernational Film Festival for An Eye for an Eye (Denmark, Iran, United States) – World Premiere. “For its narrative precision, for locking us inside a moral crucible without relief, and for weaving a multigenerational, deeply personal story that gives equal weight to all participants with searing emotional impact, and for the clarity and courage of its storytelling. Not one frame feels gratuitous as the film barrels relentlessly towards its conclusion.” An Eye for an Eye directed by Tanaz Eshaghian, Farzad Jafarialso received Tribeca’s Special Jury Mention…

Ten years have passed since he left, and yet we still haven’t grown used to his absence. A man who wielded his camera like his eyes and cast a gaze kinder than poetry upon the world—Abbas Kiarostami has not been among us for a decade now. He left with the same quiet grace with which he lived. But how tragic that he left unjustly, in vain, and in silence—in a foreign land, while galaxies of images, seen as only he could see them, still swirled in his mind; with poems yet to be written, and films left unmade. For ten…

Cinema, as one of the most powerful tools of storytelling, has often been used to chronicle the pain, resilience, and identity of a people. For Palestinians, whose history is deeply marked by displacement, occupation, and enduring resistance, film has become not just an artistic medium but a vital means of documentation, testimony, and preservation of memory. The story of Palestine is one that has frequently been silenced, misrepresented, or ignored by dominant global narratives. It is within the frame of cinema—through the lens of Palestinian filmmakers and international allies—that a different voice emerges: one that speaks of shattered homes, vanished…

Rome Is Not Just a City, It’s a Poem Flowing Through Time and Space Rome, the capital of memories, holds the stories of hundreds of wars, thousands of love affairs, and tens of thousands of coins tossed into the Trevi Fountain in hope. It is not merely a place to live, but a place to dream, to recall forgotten beauties, and to fall in love… Cinema—being a mirror of dreams and memory—has turned to Rome time and again to immortalize itself through its image. In dark theatres, Rome glows on screen, reminding us that this city never truly dies; it…

Since the early days of Hollywood, war has served as fertile ground for dramatic storytelling—but often at the cost of truth. The American film industry has repeatedly aligned itself with the political and ideological aims of the U.S. government, particularly during times of conflict. From World War II to the Cold War, from Vietnam to the post-9/11 wars in the Middle East, Hollywood has not only shaped public opinion about America’s enemies but also vilified entire nations, peoples, and ideologies, often reducing them to caricatures. The result is a legacy of films that blur the line between entertainment and propaganda,…

Cinema, from its earliest days, was never merely a tool for entertainment. It became a medium for reflecting human suffering, recounting tragedies, and recording memories that official histories sometimes overlook. Among the many narratives brought to life on the silver screen, films that depict the bombing of innocent civilians and the killing of noncombatants hold a special place. These works are valuable not only for their harrowing imagery and sweeping devastation but for their human perspective, serving as a mirror to the silenced victims of war. These films often center not on those with guns or in military ranks, but…

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, remains one of the most devastating events in human history, not only for the immediate loss of life but for the long shadow it has cast over generations. In the world of cinema, this catastrophe has served as a haunting source of reflection, a moral reckoning, and a call for remembrance. Films that confront the bombing of Hiroshima do not merely recount the historical facts—they attempt to give voice to the silenced, image to the unseen, and humanity to the statistics. The earliest cinematic responses came from Japan itself, where the…

Israeli cinema, much like the country itself, is deeply entangled in the complexities of conflict, identity, memory, and moral reckoning. Among its most powerful contributions to global film is a notable strand of anti-war and self-critical works that dare to look inward—films that question the nation’s actions, interrogate its history, and expose the psychological cost of endless war, occupation, and militarization. These films stand in stark contrast to nationalist narratives, choosing instead to confront uncomfortable truths and challenge the official myths that shape collective consciousness. In a country where military service is not only compulsory but culturally valorized, the very…