SUNDAY NOVEMBER 4, 2007 at 6:30 PM

A CINEMATIC JOURNEY INTO THE WORLD OF IRANIAN
WOMEN FILMMAKERS

SPECIAL GUESTS:
KATAYOUN AFROOZ, ROYA ARYANPAD, LADAN YALZADEH

Click Here for the Farsi Version of this page

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The Florist



A film by: LADAN YALZADEH

Featuring: Hooshang Touzie, Atossa Leoni, Marshall Manesh

THE FLORIST
a film by Ladan Yalzadeh

 

What if your heart’s deepest desire became your greatest danger?

photo by Joshua Sliwa

A white gladiola … a black car … a city where you can disappear without a trace.
The Florist is a thriller set in contemporary Tehran, a metropolis both foreign yet chillingly familiar.

Neda, an American woman born in Iran, returns to the land of her birth desperately seeking answers to a mystery that has tormented her family all her life.

With only a scribbled address to follow, Neda grabs a taxi and plunges into the seamy streets of Tehran. As day turns into night, so does this city where hookers, heroin and rock music come out to howl in the face of Islam.

As night falls, she stumbles on a shabby flower shop with the right address. But things are not what they seem. She has blundered into a dangerous realm of power, deceit and fear, where any move could be her last. Just when Neda’s quest seems hopeless, she finds what she is looking for … only to see it slip through her fingers at the last minute.

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Abyaneh: Red Village
A film by: KATAYOUN AFROOZ

In English (21 minutes)
Abyaneh is an ancient village in Iran, situated on the northwestern slope of Karkas Mountain.
Being a village of great antiquity, the village has preserved in itself like a live museum, monuments from very far ages to this day.
With a unique reddish hue, Abyaneh is one of the oldest villages in Iran. The people of Abyaneh are in love with their traditions, their culture and their village.
The village has 1500 years written history but the people of Abyaneh will tell you otherwise, they would say the village has been there for more than 6000 years.

KATAYOUN AFROOZ

Born and brought up in Iran, Katayoun Afrooz undertook her formal education and training in Cinema in the United State. She has been working as a professional filmmaker and artist. She holds a Degree both in Cinema and TV production.

Abyaneh, red village is Katayoun’s first short documentary. Abyaneh, red village premiered in 2007 at the Los Angeles international shorts film festival.

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BEYOND DARKNESS
a film by: Roya Aryanpad
In English (19 minutes)

Beyond Darkness is a symbolic psychodrama, which examines the inner fear of Simon Clayton (Stefan Hajek), who gets fired from his job. It is only when, his fear represented by a homeless man (Jason Coleman)) vanishes, that he is capable of finding the means to save his sick daughter’s life.

Born in Shiraz-Iran, Roya studied Computer Science at Flinders university of South Australia, which launched her career as an analyst/programmer. She was gifted with a  family of musician and artists, but it was when she acted in a short film in 1991, that she was inspired, and determined to pursue her childhood dream of acting and filmmaking. She moved to US in 1996, and continued with her acting in Chicago, while she worked. After more than a decade of building a successful career, she left her job and moved to Los Angeles to fully devote her time to her passion. She acted in a number of films, but realized that her artistic vision required a more immediate attention. That’s when she started film school at UCLA and LACC. She has made a number of short films. Her website www.RoyaAryan.com contains samples of her work. 

 

Love and Unity
A film by: YASSAMIN MALEKNASR
In English (14 minutes)

Love and Unity is a short film shot in Konya, Turkey which is dedicated to bringing the East and the West closer together through the life and works of Rumi, the 13th century poet and philosopher.

 

Born in Tehran,Yassamin Maleknasris a graduate of filmmaking from University of Southern California (USC) and did post-graduate work in Drama at Towson State University in Maryland. She made her first short film, Jazz Ballet in the U.S, and after several years working at American film companies, she returned to Tehran to perform in Dariush Mehrjui's film Sara (1993) for which she won a Best Supporting Actress Award from the Fajr film festival of Tehran. She has also acted in a number of other Iranian features. Maleknasr directed her debut feature film, The Common Plight in 1995, and has made several documentaries including Bababaghi, which documents the lives of lepers and their families living in the outskirts of Tabriz, and Iran through Foreign Eyes, in which foreign-born women express their views on life in Iranian society.