Issue 153

A very brief history of Iranian Cinema

26th February 2007

Rafi Pitts' It's Winter plays on the 12 of March 6pm. Memorise these handy facts on the Cinema of Iran and impress your mates in the queue.

1. The first Iranian filmmaker was Mirza Ebrahim Khan Akkas Bashi who filmed the Shah of Persia's visit to Europe in 1900.
2. During the early 1960s Iran produced an average of 25 commercial films annually, rising to a staggering 65 a year by the end of the decade.
3. Mohammed Ali Fardin a.k.a. The King of Hearts was long considered the face of Iranian commercial cinema. When his favoured style of alcohol-fuelled, sex-filled romances were eventually banned by the Islamic government he gave it all up and opened a bakery in Tehran. But his popularity with the fans never waned - his funeral was attended by 20,000 mourners.
4. Post-revolutionary Iranian cinema has a strong sense of cultural identity. Abbas Kiarostami well and truly brought post-revolutionary Iranian cinema to the world when he won the Palme d'Or at Cannes for A Taste of Cherry in 1997.
5. Perhaps Iran's most humorous exports are Sacha Baren-Cohen, who is of Welsh-Jewish-Iranian descent, and acclaimed British-Iranian comedian Omid Djalili, who appeared in Gladiator.

Holly Thomas