Introduced by author and Iranian film expert Godfrey Cheshire

Tickets: ffi2023.eventive.org/films

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6grfqyUiz3E

Made in defiance of a twenty-year ban on filmmaking, this incendiary thriller by Mohammad Rasoulof was inspired by the Iranian government’s attempt to murder several prominent writers and intellectuals in 1995. Eschewing the metaphorical approach to subversive material that many Iranian filmmakers deploy, Rasoulof (Iron Island, A Man of Integrity) delivers a bold indictment of Iran’s brutal and secretive security apparatus. At the same time, he brilliantly highlights the moral toll this system takes on both the victimized and the complicit. So dangerous was this project that Rasoulof’s name is the only one to appear in the credits. Manuscripts Don’t Burn is “harrowing, defiant, and exemplifying through its very existence the moral courage its totalitarian villains stamp down,” raves the Village Voice. “The film, while wrenching and audacious, is crafted with that humane and observational mastery of great Iranian cinema of recent decades.” Rasoulof was arrested in July for social media posts critical of the Iranian security force. Godfrey Cheshire, who writes about this film in his new book Conversations with Kiarostami, will introduce the film. (Dir: Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2013, 125 min., mp4, Persian with English subtitles)

Image courtesy of Kino Lorber