Downpour

A young teacher is sent to a school in the impoverished south-end of Tehran where he falls in love with his student's elder sister, and directs all his energy into helping the students put on a stage show. Moving, witty and brilliantly directed in a dazzling and unusual combination of neorealism and political symbolism, Bahram Beyzaie's first feature was realised with a shoe-string budget. After the revolution, when many of Beyzaie’s work was banned, the film became inaccessible for decades until being restored by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation.

Nima Hassani Nasab is a film critic and journalist based in Tehran. For the past three decades, he has edited the cinema section of multiple journals and newspapers. Having produced more than 30 documentaries on Iranian cinema for home video release, he also frequently appears on Iranian national television as a film critic. He currently teaches and produces film.