News

The movie of controversial film director Asghar Farhadi "Jodaeiye Nader az Simin" (Nader and Simin - A Separation) has surprisingly named the offical iranian contribution to the 2012 competion for the US Academy Awards (Oscar). Attending the 2011 Berlinale Festival where his film was celebrated and awarded the "Golden Bear", Mr. Farhadi oppenly criticized the current practise of film censoreship in the IRI and the oppression excerted to other filmmakes such as Jafar Panahi or Mohammad Rasoulof. In a recent interview with the London "Time Out" he states that "... Iranian censoreship is like the british weather: one day it’s sunny, the next day it’s raining. You just have to hope you walk out into the sunshine." In the light of Mr Farhadi's difficult relationship with the official iranian culture beaurocracy, it comes completely unexpected that the decision to propose "Nader and Simin" for the Oscar nomination was backed by the IRI Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

"Nader and Simin" as well as "About Ely", another movie by Mr. Farhadi, was not just praised by the critics, but there was a very enthuisiastic response by the broad audience as well.