دونده (Davandeh)

Amir Naderi’s autobiographical masterpiece about Amiro, an orphaned teenager trying to better his life by learning to read, was the first post-revolutionary Iranian film to be seen internationally. It marked the beginning of a steady wave of great films to emerge from the country in the 1980s and 90s. Breathtakingly edited by Iranian New Wave pioneer, director and writer Bahram Beyzaie, the film remains both open and abstract as it follows its protagonist’s struggle to understand and navigate a world full of hostility and indifference. (EK)

Amir Naderi is one of the most outstanding Iranian filmmakers. He has directed an array of classics of Iranian cinema including Harmonica (1974) and The Runner (1984). Naderi is the creator of two documentaries about the casualties of revolution and war (both banned in Iran) and has scripted films for directors such as Abbas Kiarostami.

Ehsan Khoshbakht is the co-director of Il Cinema Ritrovato, an annual festival of film history and film restoration in Bologna, Italy. An architect by training, he curates films around the world and is also a filmmaker (Filmfarsi, Duke Ellington in Isfahan). He has authored, edited and contributed to more than ten books on film.