68 minutes / Color
English; Farsi / English subtitles
Release: 2017
Copyright: 2008
A favorite with film festival audiences, Massoud Bakhshi's musical comedy is both humorous and critical in its portrayal of contemporary Iranian life. Using both archival footage and original footage and a playful "meta" vantage point, this documentary-fiction hybrid film traces Iranian history back to Tehran's founding 1241 BC, through a wide range of historical eras and arriving at present day.
From the city's foundation as a small rural village where exceptionally delicious pomegranates through periods under oppressors to today, Bakhshi succeeds in documenting 150 years of history and its contradictions. Crazy, dynamic and ironic, this film takes us on a journey into the history of Tehran.
"Bakhshi treats us to an intelligently edited musical compilation, [following Iranian history through] various oppressors; collective opium addiction; visits by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt ('You really have big oil wells'); the Islamic revolution; the explosive growth of the metropolis to the mountain of waste and the current transportation problem."—IDFA International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
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