Author: Bijan Tehrani

In Darkness is based on a true story. Leopold Socha, a sewer worker and petty thief in Lvov, a Nazi occupied city in Poland, one day encounters a group of Jews trying to escape the liquidation of the ghetto. He hides them for money in the labyrinth of the town’s sewers beneath the bustling activity of the city above. What starts out as a straightforward and cynical business arrangement turns into something much unexpected, the unlikely alliance between Socha and the Jews as the enterprise seeps deeper into Socha’s conscience. The film is also an extraordinary story of survival as…

Violeta Parra Went to Heaven is about the life of Violeta Para the Chilean singer, author, collector, poet, painter, sculptor, embroiderer, and ceramist. She was a multifaceted artist, a popular culture icon, a treasurer of deepest Chilean traditions, and a woman of intense contradictions, but unique genius. With more than 3,000 songs and other inspiring works, Violeta Parra won the appreciation of national art and opened the gates for the new Chilean song. She rescued the forgotten traditional culture, traveled through Chile from north to south to meet its voice, uplift it, and save it from stereotypes; then she reinvented…

Set against the backdrop of the July 7th 2005 terrorist attacks, LONDON RIVER follows Elisabeth (BAFTA winner, Academy Award nominee Brenda Blethyn) from a small farming community in Guernsey as she travels to London in the immediate aftermath of the bombings after failing to hear from her daughter. Elizabeth is disturbed by the confusion of the metropolis and above all, by the predominantly Muslim neighborhood where her daughter lived. Her fear and prejudice escalate when she discovers that her daughter was converting to Islam and as she keeps crossing paths with Ousmane (Berlin’s Silver Bear winner, Sotigui Kouyaté), a West…

The Film That Changed My Life: 30 Directors on Their Epiphanies in the Dark is a book about epiphany moments. For filmmakers, it captures that first encounter with the movie that inspired them to direct movies. In The Film That Changed My Life, I talk with 30 directors about how this film influenced their own work and how it made them think differently about movies. Film critic Leonard Maltin said, “You’ll have a hard time putting this book down.” Chicago Tribune film critic and former At the Movies co-host Michael Phillips has called the book, “A great and provocative read…it’s…

ELMA, European Languages and Movies in America, was founded by Pascal Ladreyt more than five years ago. For the fifth anniversary of Elma I had a chance to speak to Pascal and learn more about what ELMA does. But as a prologue to our conversation there would be nothing better than asking two of the festival directors working with ELMA to talk about their experience: “ELMA’s unique focus on the promotion of European cinema, European culture and European artists in an increasingly cluttered Los Angeles festival milieu is a great boost to all of us”, says Vera Mijojlic, founder and…

As a fan of international cinema, I am always on the lookout for new ways to see movies from around the globe. Having access to innovative resources such as Web sites and services that stream foreign films is essential to film buffs like me. Most people are familiar with Netflix— the online subscription service that streams movies and TV shows over the Internet. Even with the demand for and popularity of Netflix, its vast archives, nevertheless, are still missing some of the greats in film history. Last month I used Hulu.com for the first time, and on this site I…

Set in the strange and oppressive emotional landscape of the year 1983, Beyond the Black Rainbow is a Reagan-era fever dream inspired by hazy childhood memories of midnight movies and Saturday morning cartoons. From the producer of Machotaildrop, Rainbow is the outlandish feature film debut of writer and director Panos Cosmatos. Featuring a hypnotic analog synthesizer score by Jeremy Schmidt of Sinoia Cave and Black Mountain, Rainbow is a film experience for the senses.Panos Cosmatos, the writer & director of Beyond the Black Rainbow was born in Rome in 1974 to a Greek movie director father and a Swedish experimental…

Based on real events, KILLING BONO tells the story of young Irish rocker Neil McCormick (Ben Barnes) and his younger brother, Ivan (Robert Sheehan), who attempt to become rock stars but can only look on as their school friends form U2 and become the biggest band in the world. The film is based on Neil McCormick’s memoir “Killing Bono: I am Bono’s Doppelganger.”Following is Cinema Without Borders’ interview with Nick Hamm, director of Killing Bono.Bijan Tehrani: What interested you in making Neil’s Killing Bono book into a film?Nick Hamm: I read Neil McCormick’s book, and became fascinated by the story…

AFIFEST is around the corner and to learn more about what international film fans should expect at 2011 festival we had an interview with Jacqueline Lyanga, director of AFIFEST. Bijan Tehrani: Please tell us about AFIFEST 2011 and what we can expect to see this year.Jacqueline Lyanga: This year at AFI FEST you can expect to see some of the most highly anticipated films from the festival circuit; films that have won awards at Berlin, Cannes, and Venice, a number of Foreign-Language Oscar submissions, Hollywood awards season contenders and innovative works from emerging international filmmakers.BT: Can you tell us about…

25 years ago, ethnomusicologist Louis Sarno traveled from New Jersey to the forests of Central Africa to record the music of the Bayaka Pygmies. Falling in love with a Bayaka girl and her forest lifestyle, he decided to stay. “OKA!” tells the adventure of his life in Africa with his adopted family. The Bayaka pygmies maintain a tenuous balance between their traditional forest existence and their increasing dependence on the Bantu villagers. Through the eyes of Larry, the tall, ungainly white man from New Jersey, who in spite of his failing liver accompanies the Bayaka on a journey into the…