SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Monthly Film Screening: Bonjour Monsieur Ghaffari

Dir Parviz Jahed (2011), 62 mins. Bonjour Monsieur Ghaffari paints a portrait of the life and experiences of Farrokh Ghaffari, the veteran Iranian film critic, the founder of the Iranian Film Archive and one of the forerunners of the Iranian New Wave cinema in the early 60s. Ghaffari was a familiar figure not only to Iranian cinephiles, but to French film society whether as a film critic writing for the “Positive” film magazine or working with Henri Langlois in running the Cinémathèque Française in Paris in the early 1950s.

In this documentary film we see Ghaffari talking passionately about his first encounters with cinema, his life and his arrival as a stranger in Paris at the age of 11, fascinated by the silent films of the time and growing up parallel to the development of cinema in France and around the world. The film combines footage from two previously unseen interviews conducted with Ghaffari in Paris at two separate times prior to his death and archive material ranging from his personal photo album to the footage of his films including Jonoub-e Shahr (The south of the City-1958) and Shab-e Ghuzi (The Night of the Hunchback-1963). 

Featuring footage from interviews, as well as archival material and other footage interwoven to form a narrative of Ghaffari’s compelling career, his efforts to introduce the culture of film to an unfamiliar audience in Iran in the late 1950s and the events leading to his exile and eventual death away from his home. Followed by a Q&A with the director, Parviz Jahed, filmmaker, film critic and scholar. Chaired by Saeed Zeydabadi-Nejad, SOAS.

Tickets: £2 on the door