Conference. High Tension in Teheran
Lectures and documentaries
Audiovisuals
Free
Foremost Iranian intellectuals will analyse the present-day political, social and cultural challenges facing the city of Teheran; the tensions between the State and modern customs, the permeability of social and cultural life to the influxes of globalisation, and the conflicts and hopes of the inhabitants of the capital of Iran. The round tables will be accompanied by the screening of documentaries that illustrate the spirit of contemporary Teheran.
7 p.m.
DEBATE:
"The Revolution, twenty-five years on: power and public space in Tehran"
Presentation: Josep Ramoneda, director of the CCCB
Moderator: Fred Halliday, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics
Daryush Shayegan, philosopher, author of La lumière vient de l'Occident (L'Aube, 2005)
Fariba Adelkhah, anthropologist, researcher at CERI Sciences-Po, Paris
Baqer Moin, broadcaster, former Head of the Pashto and Persian Services, BBC World Service
Thursday, 23 March
7 p.m.
DEBATE:
"Freedom, between the shadow of God and the power of the State. Cultural expression in the Persian metropolis"
Moderator: Fred Halliday, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and visiting Professor at CIDOB
Goli Emami, translator and publisher
Bahman Farmanara, film director, author of A House Built on Water
Mina Marefat, architect, director of Cities Project
9.30 p.m.
FILM
Street Life in Tehran - Tehran: the 25th Hour
Seifollah Samadian, 1999, 22 minutes, Original version with subtitles
On 29 November 1998, moments after the Iranian national football team qualified for the 1998 World Cup, the citizens of Tehran went en masse into the city's streets in joyful celebration of their team's triumph. Men, children, and, for once, women turned Tehran's public space into a huge party. This day has gone down in the history of Iran as "Sweet Saturday".
Iran: A Revolution Betrayed
Ahsan Adib, 1984, 60 minutes, original version with subtitles
Clandestinely filmed, the documentary brings together the events that have marked the history of Iran over the last thirty years: the fall and expulsion of the Shah in 1979, the return from exile of the leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and the subsequent advent of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The director shows the influence of the United States in Iran's internal politics when the Shah was in power, Khomeini's political strategies, and the purges, torture and repression carried out by the revolutionary regime.
Friday 24 March
9.30 p.m.
FILM
Street Life in Tehran - Tehran: the 25th Hour
Seifollah Samadian, 1999, 22 minutes, original version with subtitles
SOS à Tehran
Sou Abadi, 2000, 52 minutes, original version with subtitles
What is intimate life like for the inhabitants of Tehran? With the aim of inquiring into the private lives and concerns, conflicts and hopes of the inhabitants of Tehran, the director filmed in a number of different government centres and institutions - telephone services offering psychological help, the Health Ministry's sex education courses, matrimonial agencies - and in group sessions, for both adults and adolescents, conducted by an elite psychologist.
Saturday 25 March
6.30 p.m.
FILM
A House Built on Water
Bahman Farmanara, 2002, 105 minutes, original version with subtitles
Winner of five awards at the Fajr International Film Festival (including Best Film and Best Leading Actor), the film describes life in Iran today through the story of a gynaecologist who is in mid-life crisis. Morally corrupt and on the verge of emotional collapse, he becomes involved with the case of an eight-year-old boy in the hospital where he works. The child is in a coma and is a media phenomenon because he can recite the Koran by heart. The intersecting lives of the two characters provide the narrative strand of a film that offers a raw portrayal of Iranian society, which looks to the country's future with sceptical eyes.
Participants: Fariba Adelkhah, Goli Emami, Bahman Farmanara, Mina Marefat, Baquer Moin, Daryush Shayegan, Fred Halliday