Iranian Film Festival Australia 2016

Overview

The act of making a movie in Iran is saddled with restrictions; however that hasn't stopped the nation's filmmakers soldiering on regardless. From the late, great Palme d'Or recipient Abbas Kiarostami to A Separation's Asghar Farhadi to banned director Jafar Panahi, Iranian film is thriving. So is Australia's only festival dedicated to their output.

For the sixth year, the Iranian Film Festival Australia shines a spotlight on the country's cinematic voices, and on contemporary life as well. Kicking off in Melbourne on Thursday, October 27, the six-day fest boasts yet another busy lineup of features, spanning opening night's highly anticipated drama Life and a Day, social-realist gang effort Lantouri and the award-winning Daughter.

Elsewhere, Sound and Fury dives into the life of a pop singer who has an affair with a fan, Drought & Lies adapts a well-known Iranian play, and I follows a woman who acts outside the law under the police scrutiny. Add familiar faces and restored classics to the mix — including first Iranian New Wave feature The Brick and the Mirror — and audiences can explore both the history and the future of Iranian cinema.