Brick and Mirror

“What the Youth sees in the mirror, the Aged sees in the mud brick” — Attaar

One of the most striking films to come out of the Pahlavi era of Iran, Ebrahim Golestan’s Brick and Mirror (Khesht va Ayeneh) is a moody, atmospheric critique of a modernizing Tehran that nonetheless ignored the basic needs of its citizens. Hashem, a taxi driver, ferries a young woman to the outskirts of the city, and as soon as she leaves his cab (almost as if she vanishes entirely), Hashem hears and discovers a baby in the back seat. Thus begins a long and fruitless search for the baby’s mother, which soon draws in Hashem’s girlfriend Taji, who sees in the baby deliverance from her own misfortune.

Virtually unseen for decades, Brick and Mirror has been restored by the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna under the exacting eye of Golestan himself, now aged 100. This is, without hyperbole, essential viewing.

Part of our series on Revolutionary Visions in Iranian Cinema. Cosponsored by the Iranian Graduate Student Association at Cornell.

more info at this website: www.janusfilms.com/films/2080

read Jonathan Rosenbaum's in-depth essay:

jonathanrosenbaum.net/2022/08/ebrahim-golestans-epic-tragedy-of-the-60s-brick-and-mirror-tk/

In Farsi with English subtitles