Author: Bijan Tehrani

MONSIEUR LAZHAR, directed by Philippe Falardeau, is a Canadian film nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Award at the 2012 Oscars.In Montreal, an elementary school teacher dies abruptly. Having learned of the incident in the newspaper, Bachir Lazhar (Fellag), a 55-year-old Algerian immigrant, goes to the school to offer his services as a substitute teacher. Quickly hired to replace the deceased, he finds himself in an establishment in crisis, all while going through his own personal tragedy.The cultural gap between Bachir and his class is made immediately apparent when he gives them a dictation exercise that is beyond their…

Recent film school grad, Hallvar Witzo, got off an 18 hour flight and arrived at the Academy Awards Nominee Luncheon to find himself sitting next to his idols, Martin Scorsese and Steven Speilberg. Hallvar candidly expressed, “This is a big deal for a kid from Norway! It is just surreal.” Not bad for a 27 year old. The theatre was a bit far from the village he grew up in as a child, where he would have to take boat to see a film! His father was a projectionist which sparked his love for film—a Cinema Paradiso story of sorts. …

Michael R. Roskam’s BULLHEAD is a harrowing tale of revenge, redemption and fate. Domineering cattle farmer Jacky Vanmarsenille (Mattias Schoenaerts in a ferocious breakout performance), constantly pumped on steroids and hormones, initiates a shady deal with a notorious mafioso meat trader. When an investigating federal agent is assassinated and a woman from his traumatic past resurfaces, Jacky must confront his demons and face the far-reaching consequences of his decisions.Bullhead is nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.Bijan Tehrani: Bullhead has the structure of a Greek tragedy, was this intentional?Michael R. Roskam: I always describe it more as a tragedy…

Wild Life happens in Alberta in 1909 in the wide open prairies of the Wild West. Enter a well-tailored young Englishman, fresh from the old country. He’s been sent to try his hand at ranching but his affection for badminton, bird watching and liquor leaves him little time for wrangling cattle. As the golden prairie summer turns to fall, it becomes clear that nothing in his refined upbringing has prepared him for the harsh conditions of the New World.Borrowing playfully from the western, nature documentaries and eyewitness reportage, this short animated film offers a fresh, wry take on the Canadian…

The Shore nominated for the Best Live Action Short film Oscar, is the uplifting story of two boyhood best friends—Joe (Ciarán Hinds) and Paddy (Conleth Hill)—divided for 25 years by the tumult of “The Troubles”. When Joe returns home to Northern Ireland, his daughter Patricia brings the two men together for a reunion, with unexpected results. What happened all those years ago? Can old wounds be healed? The answer is both hilarious and moving. The Shore is about one of the small personal reconciliations that coincide with a national reconciliation.The Shore is written and directed by Belfast native and double…

One of the five Oscar nominees for the Best Animated Short film t is Sunday from Canada, directed by Patrick Doyon. Sunday is a National Film Board of Canada production. Every Sunday, it’s the same old routine! The train clatters through the village and almost shakes the pictures off the wall. In the church, Dad dreams about his toolbox. And of course later Grandma will get a visit and the animals will meet their fate. Here is our short interview with Patrick Doyon about Sunday.Bijan Tehrani: How did you come up with the idea of Sunday? Patrick Doyon: I took…

MORGEN is the story of NELU, a man in his forties who works as a security guard in the local supermarket in Salonta, a small town on the Romanian-Hungarian border, where many illegal emigrants try to cross first to Hungary and then to Western Europe. One morning, NELU will “fish” something different out of the river: a Turkish man trying to cross the border. Not able to communicate verbally, the two men will somehow understand each other. NELU takes the stranger to the farmhouse, gives him some dry clothes, food and shelter, but doesn’t really know how to help him. …

Set in contemporary Iran, A Separation is a compelling drama about the dissolution of a marriage. Simin wants to leave Iran with her husband Nader and daughter Termeh. Simin sues for divorce when Nader refuses to leave behind his Alzheimer-suffering father. Her request having failed, Simin returns to her parents’ home, but Termeh decides to stay with Nader. When Nader hires a young woman to assist with his father in his wife’s absence, he hopes that his life will return to a normal state. However, when he discovers that the new maid has been lying to him, he realizes that…

The Girls InThe Band tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 20’s to the present day. These incredibly talented women endured sexism, racism and diminished opportunities for decades, yet continue today to persevere, inspire and elevate their talents in a field that seldom welcomed them. Judy Chaikin director of The Girls InThe Band is a graduate of AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women and is best known for writing, producing and directing the Emmy nominated PBS documentary, LEGACY OF THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST. In 2004 she received her second…

In The British Guide To Showing Off, Loved the world over by celebrities and misfits alike, British artist and living legend Andrew Logan, takes us under his glittering wing and inside his outrageous, anarchic and spectacular costume pageant, the Alternative Miss World Show. Logan describes it as a fabulous living sculpture that spans both his own life and 40 years of underground arts & culture. Artist David Hockney judged the first one, musician David Bowie couldn’t get into the second, film director Derek Jarman won the third and fashionista Zandra Rhoodes designs Logan’s host/hostess costume. Raucous, liberating and sexually charged,…