“Cinema is a Machine of Empathy”: Restoring and Curating Iranian’s Cinematic Heritage. An interview with Ehsan Khoshbakht

Abstract

The international recognition of Iranian cinema parallels its presence on the world festival circuit, from Gaffari’s 1963 Night of the Hunchback, through Kiarostami’s Palme d’or for The Taste of Cherry to Rossoulof’s in extremis addition to the 2024 Cannes Festival selection. These last few years, festivals (in particular Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Locarno) have been pivotal in diagnosing the “state of affairs” in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the ongoing creative struggle and resistance filmmakers have opposed to the regime...