TEHRAN – Nine masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave cinema will be reviewed in a massive program at Sinema Transtopia, a center in Berlin that explores cinema as a space for social discourse and a place for exchange and solidarity.

The program traces the course of the blazing years before the Revolution with the newly restored movies from the movement that started and moved forward from the 1962 Oberhausen prize-winner, “The House Is Black”, directed by poet Forugh Farrokhzad.

“Brick and Mirror” (1963-64) by Ebrahim Golestan will open the program on September 9. Curator Ehsan Khoshbakht and American critic Jonathan Rosenbaum will discuss the movie after a screening.

The film is about Hashem, a cab driver who finds an infant child in the back seat of his cab one night after he gives a ride to a young woman. He and his girlfriend, Taji, try to cope with this unwanted child. Hashem insists on getting rid of the child, Taji on keeping him. By the end, Hashem gets rid of them both.

The program will go on September 10 with a screening of director Dariush Mehrjui’s 1969 drama “The Cow”.

The film tells the story of a poor villager whose only source of joy and livelihood is his cow. One night the cow is mysteriously killed and that’s when the madness, or rather transformation, begins.

Director Bahram Beyzai’s 1972 movie “Downpour” has also been selected for the review program.

A young teacher is sent to a school in the impoverished south-end of Tehran where he falls in love with his student’s elder sister, and directs all his energy into helping the students put on a stage show.

The program, which will run until September 19, also features “The Deer”, directed by Masud Kimiai in 1974, Sohrab Shahid Saless’s 1973 drama “A Simple Event” and Farrokhzad’s “The House Is Black”.

“Chess of the Wind” (1976) by Mohammadreza Aslani, “The Hills of Marlik” (1963) by Ebrahim Golestan, “The Report” (1977) by Abbas Kiarostami, “The Night It Rained” (also known as “The Epic of the Gorgan Village Boy”, 1967) by Kamran Shirdel and “The Search” (1980) by Amir Naderi will also be screened.

Photo: Ezzatollah Entezami acts in a scene from director Dariush Mehrjui’s drama “The Cow”.

MMS/YAW