TEHRAN – The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMCA) will be holding a retrospective of Sohrab Shahid-Saless (1944-1988), an Iranian filmmaker who continued his career in the cinema of Germany during 1970s and 1980s.

A selection of nine films made by the filmmaker in Germany will be screened in the cinematheque of the museum in a film screening program under the title “Nostalgia for Elsewhere” opening tomorrow.

“Shahid-Saless is believed to be known as one of the celebrated figures in Iranian cinema of the 20th century, however he is mostly known for the two features he made in Iran, “A Simple Event” (1973) and “Still life” (1974),” director of the cienmatheque Amir-Hossein Siadat said in a press conference held at the museum on Saturday.

Siadat explained that Shahid-Saless made thirteen films in Germany while he was staying in the country. 

“High-quality copies of the movies were not available in Iran and we made great efforts to reach what we have today, and I must say the fine cultural team of the German embassy in Tehran helped us a lot,” Siadat remarked.

Director of the Cultural Section of the German Embassy, Justus Kemper, also present at the conference, briefed the participants about their cooperation.

Kemper said that Siadat helped the cultural section achieve good copies of the films to screen in Iran after going through the legal procedures.

He noted that it is important for the German Embassy to screen the selection in Iran, because the life of the filmmaker was a very special life.

Kemper said that when Shahid-Saless was in Iran he made Iranian films and when he was in Germany he made German movies, both of which were influential, and that is why the filmmaker is known as part of the history of the art of the two countries.

He also mentioned that Ms. Vivien Buchhorn, who has chosen films by Shahid-Saless her Ph.D. dissertation, would be attending a session in TMCA set on February 28 to talk about the filmmaker and his films.

Curator Reza Haeri also explained that Shahid-Saless used to work with German TV Channel ZDF, and that ZDF has cooperated well with them and has provided them with good copies of the films.

He added that nine films out of the 13 Shahid-Saless had made in Germany will be screened during the event. “The remaining films were either not appropriate to screen or were protected by copyright.” 

“Coming of Age” (1976), “The Willow Tree” (1984), “The Long Vacation of Lotte H. Eisner” (1979), “Anton P. Checkov: A life” (1981), and “Order” (1980) are among the films to go on screen during the event running until March 1.

All the films will be screened in the original German language with the Persian subtitles.

Several meetings have also been arranged on the margins of the film screening sessions.

RM/YAW