Andrew Spitznas was kind enough to allow me to have a guest blog at his blog Secular Cinephile about my selection of top 10 Iranian films. This is the intro:
The majority of people who are familiar with Iranian cinema, if they read this list, will vehemently disagree with it. Some of the most internationally renowned Iranian directors, such as Abbass Kiarostami or Jafar Panahi, have no film in this list. Also some of those unknown outside Iran but known as masters inside Iran, for example, Masoud Kimiai or Ali Hatami. The reason is that I think those directors suck. So, just a heads up: this list is not very “orthodox”. It’s not meant to give you a clear comprehensive picture of Iranian cinema, it’s not meant to be fair or representative of its different movements.
It’s only meant as a rationale for defending ten films I consider to be amazing. You can look at it as a recommendation for ten great films you probably haven’t heard about. That’s what lists are supposed to do, anyway.
Thanks a million to Andrew for allowing me to run it on his fantastic blog.