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 Brisbane before touring other state capitals, the 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.