11’09”01—September 11

11’09”01—September 11 2002

6.40

Filmmakers from all over the world provide short films – each of which is eleven minutes, nine seconds, and one frame of film in length – that offer differing perspectives on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

2002

Kandahar

Kandahar 2001

6.20

After an Afghanistan-born woman who lives in Canada receives a letter from her suicidal sister, she takes a perilous journey through Afghanistan to try to find her.

2001

The Silence

The Silence 1998

6.40

Khorshid, a blind child growing up in Tajikistan, is constantly distracted by music and sounds. This frequently causes him to be late to his job as an instrument tuner even though he runs the risk of being fired at a time when his family is in danger of being evicted from their house.

1998

The Apple

The Apple 1998

6.30

After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two Iranian sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.

1998

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame

Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame 2007

7.20

A young girl zealously wants to go to school and learn to read and write. Almost everywhere she is met with hostility or indifference. The only young boy who takes her to his school is thrown out by the teacher, because helping her prevented him from arriving in time. On her way home she and other girls are taken as prisoners by boys playing as Taliban fighters. They tear her school book to pieces and threaten to stone their female captives.

2007

Blackboards

Blackboards 2000

6.60

Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?

2000

At Five in the Afternoon

At Five in the Afternoon 2003

6.40

Nogreh is a young Afghani woman living with her father and her sister-in-law, Leylomah, whose husband, Akhtar, is missing. Beyond the issue of Akhtar, Leylomah is most concerned with how to feed her baby. She cannot provide milk for her baby as her own hunger is preventing her from lactating. Nogreh, however, aspires toward a life in a western styled democracy. Although the Taliban are no longer in power in Afghanistan, traditional forces are still active in the country. Nogreh often displays signs of rebellion, such as wearing a pair of white pumps instead of the traditional slipper beneath her burqa. But mostly, Nogreh wants to be educated. Without her father's knowledge, Nogreh is attending a secular girls school. Ultimately, she wants to become President of Afghanistan. With the help of a Pakistani refugee who likes her as a woman, Nogreh tries to understand exactly what forces led to current world leaders being elected, those forces which she wants to emulate.

2003

The President

The President 2014

6.90

The President is the story of a dictator of an imaginary country in the Caucasus, who is forced to escape following a coup d’état, and begins a journey to discover his country in the company of his five-year-old grandson. The two travel across the lands that the President once governed. Now, disguised as a street musician to avoid being recognized, the former dictator comes into contact with his people, which he comes to know from a different point of view.

2014

The Day I Became a Woman

The Day I Became a Woman 2000

6.10

A girl reaches the age of nine and is supposed to act as a grown woman according to her family. A girl participates in a bike race against the will of her husband. An elderly woman decides she wants to buy all the things she always wanted but could never get.

2000

Time of Love

Time of Love 1991

4.80

Three episodes, all with relatively similar plots about a love triangle between a woman and two men.

1991

Two-Legged Horse

Two-Legged Horse 2009

5.60

A wealthy boy hires a poor child to carry him around like a horse.

2009

Sex & Philosophy

Sex & Philosophy 2005

6.80

In the midst of a mid-life crisis Jan, a 40 year old dancing teacher, decides to instigate a revolution against himself. His first act is to summon each of his four lovers, who are unaware of each other, to join him at the dance studio where we assume he is a tutor. His revelations to the women prompt a discourse about love and the fleeting nature of happiness. But when he comes to the fourth and final woman, he finds that his own philosophy of love is not as easy to apply as he had presumed. He realizes that the more the contemporary world has become sexually oriented the farther it has moved away from love...

2005

Ongoing Smile

Ongoing Smile 2013

0.50

Documentary about Busan International Film Festival founder Kim Dong-ho.

2013

Stray Dogs

Stray Dogs 2004

7.30

In post-Taliban Kabul, two lost children, brother and sister whose parents are in prison, try to survive every day by scavenging for food. At night, they join their imprisoned mother.

2004

The Nights of Zayandeh-Rood

The Nights of Zayandeh-Rood 1990

4.70

A film about an anthropologist and his daughter during three periods: before, during, and after the Iranian Revolution. The daughter works in the accident & emergency department of a hospital, which is never empty of suicidal patients. The reason behind each suicide attempt is different, especially before and after the revolution. Looking for a reason to live, one of the suicide patients falls in love with the anthropologist’s daughter.

1990

Here Children Do Not Play Together

Here Children Do Not Play Together 2024

1

To examine the deteriorating relations between Palestine and Israel following the Hamas attack on October 7, the director walks into the heart of Jerusalem, a city that has been a holy site for Judaism, Islam, and Christianity for centuries, where tension and hatred have become a daily reality. Even though Jews and Muslims live in the same building, they do not communicate with each other and occasionally attack one another. However, the residents, from their respective positions and perspectives, ponder solutions for coexistence and peace between Muslims and Jews.

2024

Green Days

Green Days 2009

7.00

A playwright Iran tries to confront a creative crisis while political clashes erupt during her country's 2009 election.

2009

Afghan Alphabet

Afghan Alphabet 2002

6.21

Documentary showing the life of children of the Afghan villages bordering Iran, and how their life and culture were affected by Taliban regime.

2002

Marghe and Her Mother

Marghe and Her Mother 2019

6.50

22-year-old Claudia is a single mother who lives with Marghe, her sixyear-old precocious daughter. When Claudia is kicked out of her house for failing to pay the rent, she leaves Marghe to an old woman next door.

2019

Scream of the Ants

Scream of the Ants 2007

5.20

A girl believing in God marries an atheist, who is consumed by doubt. They decide to spend their honeymoon in India...

2007