Forum Iran presents Bahram Beyzaie: Identification & Mythology Films

* Please note that the language of this event's proceedings (both the film and Q&A) will be in Persian. The film has English subtitles.

Synopsis

Bahram Beyzaie (Born December 26, 1938) is an Iranian dramatist and filmmaker, and undoubtedly one of the most important Iranian scholars of the performing arts of the 20th century. He is a writer, director, playwright, essayist and, above all, an intellectual who has served and influenced his country through more than one hundred books and eleven feature films. Beyzaie is master of theatre and cinema, having produced work in both fields of art.

This film focuses on his cinematic vision and style in the films he has written, directed, edited, and produced.

About the speaker

Film scholar, author, critic, and director Bahman Maghsoudlou is the recipient of Iran’s prestigious Forough Farrokhzad literary award for writing and editing a series of books about cinema and theater. These include the acclaimed Iranian Cinema (NYU, 1987) and Grass: Untold Stories (Mazda, 2008), a definitive account of the making of Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life , the ground-breaking documentary filmed by Merian Cooper, Ernest Schoedsack and Marguerite Harrison in Iran in 1924. His most recent books in Persian are When the Clouds Did Not Hide the Moon (NY: IFVC, 2020) and The Poetic Realism of Jean Renoir (Tehran: Hekmatkalame, 2021).

As a film historian, he has so far written, produced, and directed four entries in the History of Iranian Cinema series: Abbas Kiarostami: A Report (2013), which premiered at the Montreal World Film festival, Razor’s Edge: The Legacy of Iranian Actresses (2016), Bahram Beyzaie: A Mosaic of Metaphors (2019) and Dariush Mehrjui: Making the Cow (2022).

His films have been selected for more than 100 major film festivals and garnered many awards. These include The Suitors (Cannes, 1988), Manhattan by Numbers (Venice, Toronto, London, Chicago, 1993), Seven Servants , with legendary actor Anthony Quinn (Locarno, Montréal, Toronto, 1996), Life in Fog (1998), the single most awarded short documentary film in the history of Iranian Cinema, and Silence of the Sea , winner of six prizes and a selection for more than 20 other film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival in 2004.

Registration

This is a ticketed event. Click here to purchase your tickets via Eventbrite

Organiser: Forum Iran in association with the SOAS Iranian Society and the SOAS Middle East Institute

Contact email: forum.iran.london@googlemail.com