Filmfarsi (12) + ScreenTalk with Soheila Sokhanvari and Ehsan Khoshbakht

Filmfarsi, refers to popular genre films coming out of Iran, which were characterised by music, sex, violence and dancing, merging elements of Hollywood, for localised audiences and tastes. The films capture an attempt at modernisation, which would be cut short through the increase in censorship, and celebrate the sleazy, the cheap, the vulgar.

We are showing Filmfarsi in connection to the paintings of Soheila Sokhanvari as the artist has repeatedly focused on women who appeared across popular Iranian cinema, celebrating the marginalised performers, and her work, like Filmfarsi, captures the deep connection and regard these films are held in, many of which are lost, having been destroyed amidst the crackdown during the revolution.