Rent Treasures from the Golestan Film Studio (1974)
4.0 of 5 from 46 ratings
6h 45min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
For the first-time ever on home video, this collection presents the complete output of the iconoclastic independent Iranian film studio founded in the late 1950s by a towering figure of Iranian culture, Ebrahim Golestan. The studio's earliest productions were documentaries that helped bring Iranian cinema to international attention, including 'The House Is Black', directed by the poet Forough Farrokhzad. From 1961, the studio turned to fiction. Two feature films were completed, including the pivotal 'Brick and Mirror' (1965) - both of which are presented here. After years of circulation in compromised versions, sometimes altered by censorship, these classics, which map the origins of the Iranian New Wave, are now presented in restored and definitive versions. The nine films in this set move fluidly from prose poetry to political allegory, achieving remarkable results that have inspired generations of Iranian filmmakers from Abbas Kiarostami to Jonathan Glazer. - Actors:
- Hossein Mansouri, Jamshid Mashayekhi, Taji Ahmadi, Zackaria Hashemi, Goli Bozorgmehr, Masoud Faghih, Parviz Fanizadeh, Manuchehr Farid, Ghaffar Hosseinpoor, Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Mehri Mehrnia, Akbar Meshkin, Jalal Moghadam, Pari Saberi, Forugh Farrokhzad, Myron Kinley, Hubert Aquin, Geneviève Bujold, Gordon Burwash, Renée Larochelle
- Directors:
- Forugh Farrokhzad, Ebrahim Golestan, Hubert Aquin, C.T. Baptista, Ansano Giannarelli, Allan Wargon, Alan Pendry
- Producers:
- Ebrahim Golestan, Hubert Aquin, Julian Biggs, Gordon Burwash, Guy Glover
- Voiced By:
- Ebrahim Golestan
- Narrated By:
- Forugh Farrokhzad, Ebrahim Golestan, Hubert Aquin
- Writers:
- Forugh Farrokhzad, Ebrahim Golestan, Hubert Aquin, Allan Wargon
- Aka:
- The House is Black (Khaneh siah ast) / Brick and Mirror (Khesht va Ayeneh) / A Fire (Yek atash) / Courtship / The Crown Jewels of Iran (Ganjine-haye gohar) / Wave, Coral and Rock (Moj, marjan, khara)
- Genres:
- Comedy, Documentary, Drama, Special Interest
- Countries:
- Iran
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 14/09/2026
- Run Time:
- 405 minutes
- Languages:
- English Mono, Persian LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Various
- Colour:
- Colour and B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- (0) All
- Bonus:
- Outtake from Brick and Mirror (3 mins)
- Introduction by curator and the Golestan restoration project collaborator Ehsan Khoshbakht (2026)
- Visual essay on Ebrahim Golestan by Khoshbakht (2026)
- A restored programme of three short documentaries combining the talents of master director Golestan and Iran's greatest female modernist poet, Forough Farrokzhad: A Fire (1961, 25 mins); Courtship (1961, 11 mins); The House is Black (1962, 22 mins)
- A restored programme of Golestan's documentaries following his recurrent theme of the land and its people: The Crown Jewels of Iran (1965, 14 mins), Wave, Coral and Rock (1961, 41 mins); The Hills of Marlik (1963, 15 mins), Harvest and Seed (1966, 29 mins)
- Introductions to each programme by Ehsan Koshbakht (2026)
- New 4K restoration of Secrets of the Jinn Valley Treasure from the original camera negative by by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna at L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory with funding provided by the Iran Heritage Foundation and Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna
- Introduction by Ehsan Khoshbakht (2026)
- See You Friday, Robinson Mitra Farahani's award-winning documentary chronicles an exchange of ideas between two giants of cinema - Golestan and Jean-Luc Godard - on the meaning of creativity in the twilight of life (2022, 96 mins)
- Disc 1:
- This disc includes the following Film:
- Brick and Mirror (1965)
- Special Features - Disc 2:
- This disc includes the following Film:
- Secrets of the Jinn Valley Treasure (1974) - Disc 3:
- This disc includes the following:
- Shorts from the Golestan Film Studio
- Special Features
