CINEMA REBORN and PERSIAN FILM FESTIVAL AUSTRALIA Present Tributes to Bahram Beyzaie Iranian Filmmaker (1938-2025)

 

CINEMA REBORN and PERSIAN FILM FESTIVAL AUSTRALIA Present Tributes to Bahram Beyzaie Iranian Filmmaker (1938-2025) Cinema Reborn and the Persian Film Festival are proud to pay joint tribute to the renowned Iranian filmmaker Bahram Beyzaie who died in December 2025. Our two festivals will each be presenting one of Beyzaie’s masterly films in a unique dual homage to one of the great figures of Iranian cinema. Beyzaie’s death was noted by The Guardian in an obituary by Ehsan Khoshbakht which can be accessed HERE THE STRANGER AND THE FOG (Iran, 1974, 140 minutes) screens at the Persian Film Festival on Saturday 18 April at 1.30 pm at Palace Moore Park Cinemas. (Click on the link for bookings.) In a remote Iranian village, a boat arrives with a wounded man, Ayat, who has amnesia. Widow Ra’na is interested in him, causing family tensions. Villagers ask Ayat to marry, but he chooses Ra’na, leading to trouble. Impossible to see for decades and presented in a new digital restoration from the original camera negative, The Stranger and the Fog is an endlessly symbolic tale in which uncontrollable forces of nature, superstition, ritual and violence disorient the viewer in exhilarating ways. In the film’s meticulously structured circular narrative, characters, times and spaces rhyme and mirror one another, turning filmmaking into an act of dreaming. Characters are the products of one another’s imaginations, and eventually all become myth. The film cedes the centre of both desire and control to a woman of will, breaking through the strictures of victimised women presented in many Iranian films of the 1970s. BASHU, THE LITTLE STRANGER (Iran, 1989, 121 minutes) screens at Cinema Reborn in Sydney at Randwick Ritz at 1:20 PM on Sunday 03 May and in Melbourne at Lido Hawthorn at 1:15 PM Sunday 10 May. Click through to extensive notes on the film and the director by Associate Professor Michelle Langford of the University of New South Wales. Bookings for Ritz or Bookings for Lido Fleeing his home in the Persian Gulf after an airstrike leaves him orphaned, ten-year-old Bashu (Adnan Afravian) arrives in a village in Iran’s verdant north. Stranded in this unfamiliar place with a different language, culture and skin colour, he meets Naii (Susan Taslimi), an impoverished mother of two who takes him in. Mature beyond his years, this little stranger soon becomes an essential member of her household; but overcoming the racial prejudices of his adopted community will prove a much harder task. Completed in 1986 and shelved by the Iranian authorities until 1989 for political reasons, this humanist parable was fittingly awarded the prize for Best Restored Film at Venice in 2025. The screenings at Palace Moore Park and at the Ritz will be introduced by Dr Amin Palangi, Director of the Persian Film Festival. The screening at the Lido will be introduced by Hamid Taheri, doctoral candidate in media studies at RMIT University. For further information Contact: Geoff Gardner, Cinema Reborn, 0416 912 567, cinemareborn2025@gmail.com Amin Palangi, Persian Film Festival Australia, 0422 942 494, amin@persianfilmfestival.com CHARITABLE DONATIONS TO CINEMA REBORN Since our inception supporters have continued to ensure that the annual season is able to present the very latest and very best international and Australian film restorations. Tax deductible charitable donations have enabled us to keep our admission charges to regular Ritz and Lido prices (with the lowest student concessions of any similar film-related event). We have once again set up a page via the Australian Cultural Fund to receive donations of any size, large or small. You can find it IF YOU CLICK ON THIS LINK More news soon…