Tehran Taboo (2017)

Noriko's Dinner Table

A teenager named Noriko Shimabara runs away from her family in Toyokawa, to meet Kumiko, the leader of an Internet BBS, Haikyo.com. She becomes involved with Kumiko's family circle, which grows darker after the mass suicide of 54 high school girls.

The Farthest

The captivating tales of the people and events behind one of humanity's greatest achievements in exploration: NASA's Voyager mission.

Plot 35

Plot 35 is a place that was never mentioned in my family; it is where my elder sister, who died aged three, is buried. The sister about whom I was told nothing, or nearly nothing, and of whom my parents had oddly never kept a single photograph. It was to make up for the missing images that I decided to make this film. Thinking that I would simply chronicle a forgotten life, in fact I opened up the hidden door to a past that I was unaware of, to the subconscious memory that lies inside each of us and who makes us what we are.

Mighty Like a Moose

After a homely married couple separately undergo plastic surgery, they unwittingly plan an extramarital affair with each other.

Have a Nice Day

Three parties pursue the million dollars that driver Xiao Zhang stole to help out his girlfriend.

Coming Through the Rye

Coming Through the Rye, set in 1969, is a touching coming of age story of sensitive, 16 year old Jamie Schwartz, who is not the most popular kid at his all boys' boarding school. Disconnected from students and teachers, he believes he is destined to play Holden Caulfield, the main character of The Catcher in the Rye, and has adapted the book as a play.

One Day, You Will Reach the Sea

This work is a 12-year story of Mana, a woman who cannot accept the death of her best friend, staring at her as she tries to step forward while having deep sorrow.

Final Portrait

Paris, 1964. The Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti, one of the most accomplished and respected artists of his generation, asks his friend, the American writer James Lord, to sit for a portrait, assuring him that it will take no longer than two or three hours, an afternoon at the most.

Christine

In 1974, television reporter Christine Chubbuck struggles with depression and professional frustrations as she tries to advance her career.

The Square

A prestigious Stockholm museum's chief art curator finds himself in times of both professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new exhibit.

Cold Skin

A young man who arrives at a remote island finds himself trapped in a battle for his life.

Assault on Precinct 13

The lone inhabitants of an abandoned police station are under attack by the overwhelming numbers of a seemingly unstoppable street gang.

Return to Seoul

After an impulsive travel decision to visit friends, Freddie, 25, returns to South Korea for the first time, where she was born before being adopted and raised in France. Freddie suddenly finds herself embarking on an unexpected journey in a country she knows so little about, taking her life in new and unexpected directions.

The Breadwinner

A headstrong young girl in Afghanistan, ruled by the Taliban, disguises herself as a boy in order to provide for her family.

Possession

A young woman left her family for an unspecified reason. The husband determines to find out the truth and starts following his wife. At first, he suspects that a man is involved. But gradually, he finds out more and more strange behaviors and bizarre incidents that indicate something more than a possessed love affair.

Volver

Three generations of women survive the east wind, fire, insanity, superstition and even death by means of goodness, lies and boundless vitality.

Paths of Glory

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

Loving Vincent

A young man arrives at the last hometown of painter Vincent van Gogh to deliver the troubled artist's final letter and ends up investigating his final days there.

The Neon Demon

When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will take any means necessary to get what she has.

The Bad Guys

When the Bad Guys, a crew of criminal animals, are finally caught after years of heists and being the world’s most-wanted villains, Mr. Wolf brokers a deal to save them all from prison.

The Lucky One

A Marine travels to Louisiana after serving three tours in Iraq and searches for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war.

Darkest Hour

In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.

The Godfather Part III

In the midst of trying to legitimize his business dealings in 1979 New York and Italy, aging mafia don, Michael Corleone seeks forgiveness for his sins while taking a young protege under his wing.

My Neighbor Totoro

Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.

American Beauty

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.

Elemental

In a city where fire, water, land and air residents live together, a fiery young woman and a go-with-the-flow guy will discover something elemental: how much they have in common.

1917

At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.

Beauty and the Beast

A live-action adaptation of Disney's version of the classic tale of a cursed prince and a beautiful young woman who helps him break the spell.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Harry, Ron and Hermione continue their quest to vanquish the evil Voldemort once and for all. Just as things begin to look hopeless for the young wizards, Harry discovers a trio of magical objects that endow him with powers to rival Voldemort's formidable skills.

Captain America: The First Avenger

During World War II, Steve Rogers is a sickly man from Brooklyn who's transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull – Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry, and the leader of an organization that intends to use a mysterious device of untold powers for world domination.

Se7en

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Sommerset researches each sin in an effort to get inside the killer's mind, while his novice partner, Mills, scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.

Parasite

All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.

Oppenheimer

The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.

Your Name.

High schoolers Mitsuha and Taki are complete strangers living separate lives. But one night, they suddenly switch places. Mitsuha wakes up in Taki’s body, and he in hers. This bizarre occurrence continues to happen randomly, and the two must adjust their lives around each other.

The Batman

In his second year of fighting crime, Batman uncovers corruption in Gotham City that connects to his own family while facing a serial killer known as the Riddler.

Aftersun

Sophie reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. Memories real and imagined fill the gaps between miniDV footage as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.

The Godfather

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

The Adam Project

After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future.

The Shape of Water

An other-worldly story, set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1962, where a mute janitor working at a lab falls in love with an amphibious man being held captive there and devises a plan to help him escape.

Offside

During the 2006 World Cup qualifying match between Iran and Bahrain, numerous young women are caught and rounded up for dressing as men so they could gain access to the game. Guarded by several soldiers in a holding pen, the women attempt to keep updated on the score.

Blame

A drama teacher's taboo relationship with an unstable student strikes a nerve in her jealous classmate, sparking a vengeful chain of events within their suburban high school that draws parallels to "The Crucible".

Ten

A visual social examination in the form of ten conversations between a driving woman and her various pick-ups and hitchhikers.

Desert Dancer

Inspirational true story of Iranian dancer Afshin Ghaffarian, who risked his life for his dream to become a dancer despite a nationwide dancing ban.

Kinsey

Kinsey is a portrait of researcher Alfred Kinsey, driven to uncover the most private secrets of a nation. What begins for Kinsey as a scientific endeavor soon takes on an intensely personal relevance, ultimately becoming an unexpected journey into the mystery of human behavior.

The Color of Paradise

The story revolves around a blind boy named Mohammed who is released from his special school in Tehran for summer vacation. His father, shamed and burdened by Mohammed's blindness, arrives late to pick him up and then tries to convince the headmaster to keep Mohammed over the summer. The headmaster refuses, so Mohammed's father eventually takes him home.

Close-Up

This fiction-documentary hybrid uses a sensational real-life event—the arrest of a young man on charges that he fraudulently impersonated the well-known filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf—as the basis for a stunning, multilayered investigation into movies, identity, artistic creation, and existence, in which the real people from the case play themselves.

Taste of Cherry

A middle-aged Tehranian man, Mr. Badii is intent on killing himself and seeks someone to bury him after his demise. Driving around the city, the seemingly well-to-do Badii meets with numerous people, including a Muslim student, asking them to take on the job, but initially he has little luck. Eventually, Badii finds a man who is up for the task because he needs the money, but his new associate soon tries to talk him out of committing suicide.

Starcrossed

Two brothers develop a sexual attraction to one another amid the unkind world around them.

Baran

On a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.

Crimson Gold

Pizza man Hussein is a daily witnesses to the unjust distribution of wealth in his native Iran. One day, he finds a purse filled with shockingly expensive receipts from an upscale jewelry store. He attempts to bring the purse back to the store, but because of his working-class attire, he's not allowed inside. Then, during a delivery, a rich man invites Hussein into his extravagant mansion – an event that spurs Hussein to make a desperate bid for wealth.

Pad Man

Upon realizing the extent to which women are affected by their menses, a man sets out to create a sanitary pad machine and to provide inexpensive sanitary pads to the women of rural India.

Circumstance

A wealthy Iranian family struggles to contain a teenager's growing sexual rebellion and her brother's newfound conservatism.

Executioner's Strange Talk

The executioner Xie Qi, who is in charge of the ghost-headed knife, will encounter the ghost of a woman who is back for revenge because he killed the female prisoner during the taboo of three quarters of noon. The people of the town were very angry and blamed Xie Qi for all the inauspicious things that happened. Xie Qi wants to use the old method of stitching up the human head back to its body and subsequently burn it to pacify the female ghost, but unexpectedly the human head was stolen, and the body sewer was killed. The case of the town’s wealthy merchants grave moving and the girl’s disappearance, things start coming together, and Xie Qi is now in grave danger…

A Separation

A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.

Fall

Soghoot (سقوط) A music Video By Amir Tabari

The Song of Sparrows

When an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes into a world alien to him - incredibly hectic Tehran, where sudden opportunities for independence, thrill and challenge him. But his honor and honesty, plus traditional authority over his inventive clan, are tested, as he stumbles among vast cultural and economic gaps between his village nestled in the desert, and a throbbing international metropolis.

Close My Eyes

After some years of tension, Richard begins a sexual relationship with his sister Natalie. Now married, the relationship proves dangerously obsessional.

Taxi

A yellow cab is driving through the vibrant and colourful streets of Tehran. Very diverse passengers enter the taxi, each candidly expressing their views while being interviewed by the driver who is no one else but the director Jafar Panahi himself. His camera placed on the dashboard of his mobile film studio captures the spirit of Iranian society through this comedic and dramatic drive…

Pig

A serial killer is going around killing Iran's most beloved filmmakers. Hasan, a blacklisted filmmaker himself, is depressed and wonders: why isn't he being targeted?

Love Actually... Sucks!

It tells a variety of stories about love that has gone wrong: a brother and sister in an illicit relationship, a married painter who falls in love with his young male life model, a dance school teacher who is besotted with his senior student, and a lesbian couple, one of whom has role-play paranoia, and is caught in a complex love triangle.

Memories of a Burning Body

Raised in a repressive era where sexuality was taboo, Ana, Patricia, and Mayela found their understanding of womanhood based on unspoken rules and implicit impositions. Now, their fearless voices incarnate in a single 65-year-old woman, who revisits a kaleidoscopic life of intertwined memories, secrets, and hidden desires.

Protect Me From What I Want

Saleem is an Indian student living in Leeds with his parents. He meets Daz at a gay cruising spot, and they have a night of mutually enjoyable sex. Saleem is nonetheless ashamed of himself and what he has done the next day.

True Siblings

The siblings Linus, 19-years-old, who are taking driving license and Vanja, 17-years-old, who's still in school. Their mom Eva works night shift at a hotel. We get to follow them during one month. Linus and Vanja begin to realize that they are living in a universe of their own. And there is neither room for the mom or boy- and girlfriends. At first it is only the longing love in unspoken thoughts. But when thought gets into words they realize that they are each others perfect half. They are drawn closer to each other and finally can't resist the taboo temptation in each others bodies. At first they deny, lie and try to resist. It's about shame and guilt and forbidden feelings which leads to a point where everything is at stake.

Septembers of Shiraz

In this adaptation of the critically acclaimed debut novel by Iranian American author Dalia Sofer, a secular Jewish family is caught up in the maelstrom of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Men and Women

Two friends take two prostitutes for a night of pleasure. But the night turns out to be frustrating for all involved, as much bitterness is revealed in their conversation and attitudes, uncovering their anguish and deeper feelings, and the emptiness of their lives.

Woman Is My Last Name

This visual poetry is a celebration of the full spectrum of womanhood, from the complex vulnerability to the hidden power.

Under the Shadow

After Shideh's building is hit by a missile during the Iran-Iraq War, a superstitious neighbor suggests that the missile was cursed and might be carrying malevolent Middle-Eastern spirits. She becomes convinced a supernatural force within the building is attempting to possess her daughter Dorsa, and she has no choice but to confront these forces if she is to save her daughter and herself.

Daddy

Colin McCormack thinks he has it all - a great job, a steady stream of hot younger guys, and a best friend whose devotion he takes for granted. But when a charming and mercurial intern sweeps him off his feet, Colin sees a chance for something more: A family of his own. What he discovers instead is a shattering secret that may cost Colin everything -- and everyone -- he holds dear.

Before the Dawn

A young high school teacher moves to a new town for a fresh start and falls for a troubled student.

Long Lost

When Seth receives a mysterious letter inviting him to spend the weekend at a secluded mansion in the country, he soon realizes the people inside the house may know him better than he knows himself.

Taboo: Forbidden Love

Eun-ji is a idol trainee who gets abandoned by Jin-tae her sponsor, so she heads back down to her sister Sun-yeong's home. Her first love Joon-hwan is now her brother-in-law so he welcomes her but Sun-yeong treats her like a child and worries that Eun-ji might go down the same path she did when she gave up becoming an idol. Eun-ji and Sun-yeong quarrel often and Joon-hwan comforts Eun-ji every time. Eun-ji starts to depend on him and he also secretly tells her why he quit his job. One day, Sun-yeong goes on a business trip for a week but before she leaves she tells Eun-ji how sorry she is. They share a momemtum with two wooden dolls. All alone by the two of them at home, Eun-ji tries to embrace Joon-hwan's heart by showing him a scrap note she made of his articles. He is grateful for Eun-ji and starts to open up to her. The two of them cross a line that shoud never be crossed and as time goes, they fall deeper and deeper into each other.

Fadeath

“Fadeath portrays the moral conflict of a young man as he faces a life-altering decision regarding his ailing father.”

You Are My World

"Donyaye Mani" is a single by Iranian singer Amir Tabari Which was released as a video in 2014. In the video, he tries to portray love and perform it in Persian.

Say It Isn't So

Boy meets girl; boy falls in love (and had wild, non-stop sex) with girl; boy loses girl... when they discover they are brother and sister! But when he learns that he's the victim of the ultimate case of mistaken identity, the lovesick young man -- whom everyone still thinks is after some taboo thrills -- must race across the country to stop her from marrying another man.

Football Under Cover

David Asmmann's Football Under Cover documents the hard work involved in setting up an exhibition soccer match, known as a "friendly," between a German girls squad and Iranian women's team. In addition to showing how the two groups come from very different cultures, the documentary showcases what playing the game means to the members of both teams, and displays how passionate the fans of these two squads are.

There's Something About Mary

For Ted, prom night went about as bad as it’s possible for any night to go. Thirteen years later, he finally gets another chance with his old prom date, only to run up against other suitors including the sleazy detective he hired to find her.

Moments with Johan

The beautiful gay erotic superstar Johan Paulik is enthusiastically celebrated in this jam-packed compendium of Johan's greatest on-screen performances, plus an exclusive interview with the charming boy himself and previously unseen out-takes which reveal the charm and humor of this much admired adult model.

Coup 53

Tehran, Iran, August 19, 1953. A group of Iranian conspirators who, with the approval of the deposed tyrant Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, have conspired with agents of the British MI6 and the US CIA, manage to put an end to the democratic government led by Mohammad Mosaddegh, a dramatic event that will begin the tragic era of coups d'état that, orchestrated by the CIA, will take place, over the following decades, in dozens of countries around the world.

Forbidden Films

Between 1933 and 1945 roughly 1200 films were made in Germany, of which 300 were banned by the Allied forces. Today, around 40 films, called "Vorbehaltsfilme", are locked away from the public with an uncertain future. Should they be re-released, destroyed, or continue to be neglected? Verbotene Filme takes a closer look at some of these forbidden films.

Recently, My Sister is Unusual

Mitsuki and Yuya become stepsister and stepbrother because of their parents' marriage. Mitsuki can't get along with her new family and Yuya doesn't know how to approach his new stepsister. One day, Mitsuki becomes possessed by the spirit of Hiyori. Hiyori likes Yuya and believes Yuya can help her get to heaven. Hiyori places a leather chastity belt upon on Mitsuki and a plan takes place to help send Hiyori to heaven.

Malicious

A widower and two of his sons become infatuated by their beautiful housekeeper, and all three set out to seduce her using their own unique methods.

Burning Palms

A subversive tale that interlaces five stories set in Los Angeles, where no taboo is left unexplored as each character careens toward a dark and often comic fate

Tasmanian Devil: The Fast and Furious Life of Errol Flynn

The story of Tasmanian-born actor Errol Flynn whose short & flamboyant life, full of scandals, adventures, loves and excess was largely played out in front of the camera - either making movies or filling the newsreels and gossip magazines. Tragically he was dead from the effects of drugs and alcohol by the time he was only 50 & the myths live on. But there is another side of Flynn that is less well known - his ambitions to be a serious writer and newspaper correspondent, his documentary films and his interest in the Spanish Civil War and Castro's Cuba

Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret

Enter the world of undisturbed birth as 11 couples share their intimate personal journeys, facing their fears and moving through pain into the ecstasy of birth. Orgasmic Birth poses the ultimate challenge to our cultural myths.