As student protests increase in Iran, encouraged by the success of Egyptians in throwing off a repressive regime, the arrival of this film couldn’t be better timed for Buffalonians interested in world events. Granaz Moussavi’s docudrama was shot guerrilla style in Tehran using digital equipment. (The only choice: most of the 35-millimeter equipment in Iran is controlled by the government.) It opens with a scene that would not be unusual in most countries, young people dancing to loud music at a rave. But in this seemingly modern city such gatherings are illegal, and it is broken up by a militia yelling, “Do you think this is Europe? Make yourself decent!”

Through the eyes of Marzieh, a performance artist whose work has been banned, we see the trials of educated young people who are unable to create or participate in a culture of their own because of the government clampdown on expression. The film occasionally tests viewers’ patience with extended samples of their art (a little experimental theater goes a long way, especially on screen), but these youth are the vanguard of a society that deserves to be better recognized than the controlling forces that claim to speak for all of Iran.

My Tehran for Sale will be accompanied by the Iranian short film “Feminin/Masculin” as a presentation of the International Women’s Film Festival on Thursday, February 24, at the Market Arcade Film and Arts Center.

This Saturday the IWFF also presents Women Art Revolution, a documentary about the “Feminist Art Revolution” of the 1970s by Lynn Hershman-Leeson (Strange Culture). It will be screened at Hallwalls, 341 Delaware Avenue, at 3pm and 8pm on Saturday and 3pm on Sunday.

—m. faust

Watch the trailer for My Tehran For Sale