Parviz Shahinkhou

Maryam, her friend Parvaneh who is a nurse and her cousin Morteza go on a leisure trip to the north of the country. In the hotel where they are staying, Parvaneh meets a rich young man named Bahman who has come to the north with his uncle and his cousin Sharareh.

Perdues dans un océan de sable, deux silhouettes cheminent : Ishtar, une petite fille pleine d'entrain et son grand-père Bab'Aziz, un derviche aveugle. Elle le guide vers la grande réunion des derviches qui a lieu tous les trente ans, mais pour trouver cet endroit secret, il faut “écouter le silence infini du désert avec son cœur”. Leur voyage à travers l'immensité brûlante les amène, tel un jeu de pistes, à la croisée d'autres destins : Osmane, qui cherche un palais en plein désert... Zaïd, dont le chant a séduit une femme à la beauté irréelle qu'il a perdue depuis... Hussein, un jeune homme en quête d’un autre monde... Il y a aussi ce conte ancien que raconte Bab’Aziz à Ishtar tandis qu'ils progressent péniblement dans le sable, l’histoire de ce prince qui a abandonné son royaume pour devenir derviche. Et le désert finira par révéler son secret...

Noted Iranian actress Susan Taslimi plays an impoverished single mother who agees to marry off her 13-year-old daughter to a middle-aged man in return for a mare, which will help her earn an income and provide for her younger children. Director Ali Zhekan paints a stark picture of poverty and patriarchy in rural Iran (the mother stores her rice in a container hidden in a tree; her brother, who brokered the wedding, mercilessly beats the recalcitrant child), but this 1986 film is distinguished mostly by Taslimi's increasingly fiery performance as the mother decides to defend her daughter's freedom.

Jamshid, the son of Abbas Sakhai, has been living abroad for a number of years. He sends a message for his family who then decide to make a film depicting their lives and send it to Jamshid. Omid, the younger son of the family, rents a video camera and records images of members of the family as they talk directly into the camera.

Sohrab, a provincial young writer, is lost in the desert on the way to Tehran to get a publication license for his book on old Persian poetry, but the trip involves some bizarre events.

Twin brothers live two different lives as they are separated and given to different families after being born.

A popular bandit, Morad, is robbing trade caravans. During a fight with another bandit, he has been rescued from death by the rural family. He takes a profound challenge in his life with these villagers.