Jamsheed Mashayekhi:
Dariush Asadzadeh:
Fatemeh Motamed Arya:
Hedeyeh Tehrani:
Ehsan Amani:
Shahrokh Foroutanian:
Abadan
Information:
[ABADA] | 2003 | 83 min | Feature Narrative
Directed by: Mani Haghighi and Erik Moe
(Abadan)In Farsi with English subtitles.
Iran
New York Premiere
Cast & Credits
Synopsis
Separated from her husband, but still emotionally attached to him, a lonely Iranian woman searches desperately for her elderly father, who is obsessed with running away from Tehran to Abadan, the oil-rich southern city destroyed in the war with Iraq. The search brings them back together -- sort of. Mani Haghighi's unusually circular road movie portrays the lives of contemporary middle-class Iranians, something rarely seen in films made in Iran after the 1979 Islamic revolution. The film depicts both the older generation, often in denial and longing for the glorious past, and the younger generation, also looking for glory - in a future outside Iran. After living abroad in Canada for 17 years, Haghighi chose to return home to make this film, his first feature, which has been banned, in Iran, in part because of the vulgar language used by one of the characters. Unlike most of his contemporaries in Iran, who work with non-professional actors, this director brings together several of the film and theater stars of pre- and post-revolution Iran. Haghighi is the grandson of one of the iconic figures of Iranian film history (director/writer/producer Ebrahim Golestan), and the son of another renowned filmmaker (Nemat Haghighi), and he believes that this cinematic heritage is both a blessing and a challenge.
--Katayoun Beglari-Scarlet+About The Director
Mani Haghighi, born in Tehran in 1969, studied philosophy for 12 years in Canada before he returned to Iran to make films. He is the director of Water (2000), a short film based on a story by Borges, and To Stay (2001), a documentary about the lives of 12 Iranian painters during the missile attacks on Tehran in the final days of the Iran-Iraq war. Abadan (2003) is his feature film debut.
+Director Statement
During the last decade, Iranian cinema has become famous for rhapsodizing on the themes of simplicity and innocence. This reputation has been a both a blessing and a curse for younger filmmakers here. Iranian films are in vogue, but what viewers expect of them is quickly turning into cliché. I wasn't particularly interested in overturning or imploding this cliché as I wrote Abadan. Instead, I was trying to tell another story and show another image: that of the wild complications of behaving maturely in a polluted and clogged post-war metropolis. People living in contemporary Tehran have a love-hate relationship with their city: they are mostly dreaming about escaping to another place (rural areas, foreign countries) but something about the decayed urban beauty of this sprawling city prevents them from leaving. I wanted to discover and show what that something is.
ABADAN by
NANCY
on April 12, 2011 11:08 AM
Hi, I would love to see this movie. where is this movie being shown please?
Hediyeh Tehrani and Fatemeh Mohamah aria are the best actresses.
