TEHRAN – The Iran Cinema Festival (Festival Cinemas d’Iran) will hold a retrospective of the 87-year-old actor Ali Nasirian in its ninth edition, which will take place in Paris from June 22 to 28.

Seven films, including “The Cow” directed by Dariush Mehrjui, will be reviewed in the retrospective.

Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize of the 1971 Venice Film Festival, “The Cow” follows Masht Hassan, who owns the only cow in a remote and desolate village.

While he is away, his cow, whom he treats as his own child, dies. Knowing the relationship between Masht Hassan and his cow, the villagers hastily dispose of the corpse, and when Masht Hassan returns, they tell him that his cow ran away. Devastated by the news, Masht Hassan starts to spend all his time in the barn eating hay and slowly begins to believe that he has become the cow. 

In this film, Nasirian portrays Masht Eslam who along with the headman (Jafar Vali) takes Masht Hassan to a psychiatry hospital.

Mehrjui’s 1971 comedy-drama “Mr. Naive”, also known as “Mr. Gullible”, will also be screened. 

Nasirian stars in the title role as a villager who goes to the city to find a job and marry a wife. But he encounters a lot of troubles he did not anticipate.

The lineup also includes director Masud Jafari Jozani’s 1985 drama “Frosty Roads”.

In winter, a young man named Esmaeil is forced to go to the city to get medicine for his father. Mr. Musavi (Nasirian), the teacher of the village and another youngster Rahman accompany him. On the way, the teacher leaves them to get back to the village but is attacked by wolves. He hides in a pit waiting for help. Esmaeil and Rahman make it to the city and get the medicine and on the way back home join a group of villagers who have come to rescue the teacher, and together they manage to save him.

The retrospective also features “The Scent of Joseph’s Coat” (1995) by Ebrahim Hatamikia, “Iron Island” (2005) by Mohammad Rasulof and “A Hairy Tale” (2019) by Homayun Ghanizadeh.

In its official section, the Iran Cinema Festival will screen nine films, including Saeid Rustai’s drama “Leila’s Brothers”, an absolute highlight of this year’s Cannes competition.

Photo: Actor Ali Nasirian poses with his wax effigy at the Film Museum of Iran on July 11, 2020. (FMI)

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