Western viewers of Asghar Farhadi’s A Separationmay think they can guess the circumstances. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the nation run by medieval Shi’ite clerics and a daffy, dangerous politician who denies the Holocaust and may soon have a nuclear weapon to aim at Israel. It’s the country that most Republican candidates for President say they can’t wait to bomb.

“BERLIN –The Berlin Film Festival’s red carpet could well have been painted green, the Iranian color of freedom, as Nader and Simin, A Separation from Iranian director Asghar Farhadi won the 2011 Golden Bear for best film. The ensemble cast of Nader and Simin took both the best actor and best actress Silver Bears…”. Read More

Kiarostami’s latest film “Certified Copy” is accepted in the Cannes Film Festival’s main competition.
“While promoting his latest book in Italy, a middle-aged English writer meets a young French woman and sets off to San Gimignano with her.”

Sami Frey, Juliette Binoche are the leading actors of this film.

Abbas Kiarostami, a celebrated Iranian filmmaker who has won numerous international awards for films like “ Close-Up” and “ Through The Olive Trees,” published an open letter in a Tehran newspaper on Tuesday calling for the release of Jafar Panahi and Mahmoud Rasoulof, two directors recently detained by the authorities.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/iranian-filmmaker-speaks-out-on-prisoners/