Author: Bijan Tehrani

The Class is the story of François and his fellow teachers prepare for a new year at a high school in a tough neighborhood. Armed with the best intentions, they brace themselves to not let discouragement stop them from trying to give the best education to their students.Cultures and attitudes often clash in the classroom, a microcosm of contemporary France. As amusing and inspiring as the teenaged students can be, their difficult behavior can still jeapordize any teacher’s enthusiasm for the low-paying job. François insists on an atmosphere of respect and diligence. Neither stuffy nor severe, his extravagant frankness often…

The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food, feeding their families and creating a community. But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin…

Power, money and blood: these are the values that the residents of the province of Naples and Caserta confront every day. They have practically no choice, and are forced to obey the rules of the “System,” the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a normal life. In Gomorrah five stories are woven together in a violent scenario, set in a cruel and ostensibly invented world, but one that is deeply rooted in reality. Matteo Garrone, director of Gomorrah was born in Rome in 1968. He graduated from art school in 1986 and worked as an assistant…

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can’t remember anything else about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves…

Last Stop 174 starts in Rio de Janeiro, 1983. Marisa, a drug addicted mother in her early twenties is breastfeeding her three- month-old baby, Alessandro in her shack. The door bursts opened and drug lord Meleca comes in to collect a drug debt. Because Marisa doesn’t have the money, the baby is yanked from her arms and taken to be raised by Meleca. Cast out of the community and homeless, all Marisa has left only is the memory of son Alessandro. Ten years later, on the other side of the city, Sandro, 10 years old, sees the corpse of his…

Niloofar is a twelve-year-old Iraqi girl whose dream is to read and write in a village where education is only for boys. While assisting her midwife mother during a delivery, Niloofar meets a woman who allows her to secretly study. In the meantime, Niloofar’s father arranges her marriage to an older man once she becomes a woman. Horrified by this notion, Niloofar does everything in her power to postpone her first periods. When destiny catches up with her, she hides her womanhood from her community to pursue her dream. Until one day, the truth is revealed. Rather than live in…

The Necessities of Life deals with an essential question: “What does a human being need to live?” The film uses the 1950s-era tuberculosis epidemic in the Far North as its starting point. The spread of the disease forced many Inuit to go to various Canadian cities for treatment. Tivii (Natar Ungalaaq, Atanarjuat: the Fast Runner) is taken to a sanatorium in Quebec City. Uprooted, far from his loved ones and faced with a completely alien world, he finds himself unable to communicate with anyone. When his nurse, Carole (Éveline Gélinas) realizes that Tivii’s illness is not the most serious threat…

No One’s Son is the story of Ivan, a 36-year old ex-rock singer and a disillusioned war veteran who has lost both legs in the recent Croatian Homeland War. His father, Izidor, has been a well-known political prisoner in the former Yugoslavia, and he is now standing as an independent candidate for the Croatian Parliament. Then a face from the past re-appears: an impoverished Serbian refugee called Simo, who has recently returned to town. As an ex-communist official, Simo imprisoned Izidor decades ago. He knows certain facts about Izidor that could destroy his reputation and wreck his political campaign. Simo…

On a hot summer day in Poland, a group of people walks through a run-down steel mill. They are actors, from a theater in Prague, and they’re here to rehearse for a performance to be held in the space the next day. There are a few workers still on the job at this mill, the only living creatures left. They pay the actors little attention at first, pre-occupied with a personal tragedy: the day before, the son of a maintenance-man fell from a catwalk and seriously injured his spine. Their interest is in his fate. Amid remnants of old machinery…

The story of Under The Bombs happens during a cease-fire in the Lebanon-Israel conflict of 2006. A Christian taxi driver brings an untraditional Shiite woman from Beirut to the heart of the conflict in the country’s south. While they scour the rubble of local towns for her son, who was sent to live with her traditional family while she was staying with her husband in Dubai, they discover that despite their very different backgrounds they have much in common. And during their trip through the desolate countryside, the two travelers develop a deep bond as a response to the death…