Women’s Prison
Nedamatgah- IRAN / 1965 / Persian / B&W / DCP (Original: 35mm) / 11 min
Director: Kamran Shirdel
Director of Photography: Maziyar Parto
Editing: Kamran Shirdel, Kazem Rajinia
Narration: Asadollah Payman
Presented by: Women’s Organization of Iran
Production Company: Ministry of Culture and Art
Source: National Film Archive of Iran
This film is the first of four black-and-white films known as the “Four Blacks” that Kamram Shirdel made after returning from a long period of study in Italy. It was made with support from the Women’s Organization of Iran, founded by Ashraf Pahlavi, twin sister of the then Shah of Iran. It takes up the stories of women in jail for crimes ranging from murder to drug use and illegal business activities, creating hand-made crafts to support themselves and raising children within the confines of the prison. As simultaneous audio recording was impossible with the 35mm film of the time, the interviews were recorded using other people’s voices after the filming. A documentary that recalls the power of Italian neo-realism, this film was a vanguard work in the Iranian New Wave.
Women’s Quarter
Qaleh- IRAN / 1966-80 / Persian / B&W / DCP (Original: 35mm) / 18 min
Director: Kamran Shirdel
Directors of Photography: Naghi Masoumi, Mansour Yazdi
Sound: Ghasem Aghasi, Hassan Moslehi
Editing: Kamran Shirdel, Gorgin Gerigourians
Still Photography: Kaveh Golestan
Mixing: Mohsen Roushan, Mohammadreza Delpak
Colorist: Hashem Mohagheghi
Presented by: Women’s Organization of Iran
Production Company: Ministry of Culture and Art
Source: Kamran Shirdel
Another of Shirdel’s “Four Blacks” made after returning from Italy, this film looks at issues dealing with the support for female sex workers by the Women’s Organization of Iran, in the red-light district of Tehran known as the “new city.” The difficulties from poverty faced in the world of sex work there are captured with vivid relief. Banned in the middle of filming, the film materials were confiscated and went missing, with the negative to be discovered after the Revolution in 1980, and edited by the director, with the word “unfinished” appearing at its close.
Tehran Is the Capital of Iran
Teheran, Payetakht-e Iran Ast- IRAN / 1966-80 / Persian / B&W / DCP (Original: 35mm) / 19 min
Director: Kamran Shirdel
Director of Photography: Mansour Yazdi
Editing: Kamran Shirdel, Gorgin Gerigourians
Sound: Ghasem Aghasi
Mixing: Mohsen Roushan, Mohammadreza Delpak
Presented by: Women’s Organization of Iran
Production Company: Ministry of Culture and Art
Source: National Film Archive of Iran
Produced with support from the Ministry of Culture in 1963, this film aimed to document the results of the White Revolution reforms, which were Shah Pahravi’s attempt at western-style modernization in Iran. Progressing through a parallel between: a schoolteacher in Tehran dictating to her students phrases that praise the Shah for progress in the city, and the dire situation being experienced by people living in its poorer sections—this film vividly captures the divide between ideals and reality. The rushes were confiscated during editing, and this documentary was not rediscovered until after the revolution of 1979. It ends with the word “unfinished,” like Women’s Quarter.
The Night It Rained
Oun Shab Ke Baroon Oumad- IRAN / 1967 / Persian / B&W / DCP (Original: 35mm) / 36 min
Director, Conceived by: Kamran Shirdel
Directors of Photography: Naghi Masoumi, Kamran Shirdel
Photographs: Nosrattolah Karimi
Editing: Kamran Shirdel, Fatemeh Dorostian
Sound: Homayoun Pourmand
Mixing: M.S. Alami, E. Movaffagh, A. Khanzadi
Production Assistant: Abbas Mohammadi Nam
Narration Script: Esmaeil Nooriala, Kamran Shirdel
Narration, Interviews: Nosrattolah Karimi
Production Company: Ministry of Culture and Art
Source: National Film Archive of Iran
This documentary follows a boy who became a hero when he saved the lives of train passengers, alerting them that the tracks were flooded. Shirdel, asked to make a film about the boy’s valor, encountered differing accounts as told by various parties involved, from what was reported in newspapers, to the boy himself who warned of the derailment, to the workers at the rail service. It reveals a “new reality” hidden behind the original heroic tale. The novel documentary style, critical of reality itself, was not accepted by government officials, and this work resulted in Shirdel being fired from his job.