• Watch these beautiful films to understand Iran better.
• Directors like Majid Majidi, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi have become the toast of the international cinema circuit.
• The White Balloon, Children Of Heaven and A Separation are some examples of beautiful Iranian cinema.

Every cinephile would remember the time they first watched Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven (1997) and witnessed its simplicity, beauty and emotional power. Following the stringent restrictions of post Islamic Revolution Iran, filmmakers found a way of beating censorship and make films with children.

With their poetic realism, the film gained popularity and acclaim worldwide. Directors like Majid Majidi, Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Asghar Farhadi became the toast of the international cinema circuit. Made with small budgets and big ideas, the films became a lesson on how to tell stories with imagination and heart.

Iran has gone through many political upheavals and is in the midst of a war now. Will these brilliant Iranian filmmakers reflect the turmoil in their country?

Many wonderful gems of Irani cinema are available on streaming platforms. Deepa Gahlot picks her 10 favourites:

The White Balloon (1995), Amazon Prime Video

The debut feature of the fearless and uncompromising director Jafar Panahi, which was the first Iranian film to win a Camera d'Or at Cannes, was a sweet film about a girl, who loses the money given to her to buy a goldfish for the Iranian New Year celebration. It was the last bit of money the impoverished family has, and she has to find it somehow.

Children of Heaven (1997), Amazon Prime Video

Majid Majidi's film has a beautiful and universally loved story about a young boy, who loses his sister's shoes and the poor family cannot afford to buy a new pair. The boy then enters a race so that he can win the shoes that are offered as a prize.

It is classic simple, yet heartwarming story-telling, underlining the kindness and innocence of children, and the first film to be nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category. It lost to Roberto Benigni's Italian masterpiece, Life Is Beautiful.

Taste of Cherry (1997), MUBI

Directed by Abbas Kiarostami, Taste Of Cherry was the first Iranian film to win a Palme d'Or at Cannes.

It follows a man driving through the outskirts of Tehran looking for someone to bury him after he commits suicide. It is a minimalist, philosophical meditation on the value of life, even with a subject as morbid as death.

The Color of Paradise (1999), Amazon Prime Video

Majid Majidi's brilliant and soul-stirring film is about a blind boy, Mohammad, whose bitter, widowed father sees him as a burden and an obstacle to remarriage. Over the protests of the boy's grandmother, the father decides to abandon the child as an apprentice to a blind carpenter.

A Separation (2011), Amazon Prime Video

The first Iranian film to win an Oscar, Asghar Farhadi's A Separation is a heart-rending, legal and moral drama in which a couple is brought to the brink of a divorce because the wife is able to live abroad to provide better opportunities for their only daughter, but the husband wants to stay back in Iran and look after his father, who suffers from Alzheimer's.

Taxi/Taxi Tehran (2015), Amazon Prime Video

Jafar Panahi was banned from filmmaking by the Iranian government for his anti-establishment stance. Undeterred, he drove a cab through Tehran, using a dashboard camera to capture the stories of passengers. It is a splendid, witty act of artistic defiance.

The Salesman (2016), Amazon Prime Video

Another Oscar winner from Asghar Farhadi, this tension-filled drama is about a couple participating in a production of Arthur Miller's play, Death Of A Salesman. When the wife is assaulted in their new home, the husband gets obsessed with hunting down the perpetrators.

A Hero (2021), Amazon Prime Video and MUBI

Asghar Farhadi's A Hero, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, examines the fickle nature of social media and public perception through Rahim, in debtors' prison, who finds a bag of gold and tries to return it, only for his 'heroic' act to be questioned. Leveraging his short-term celebrity status, Rahim tries to persuade his creditor to withdraw his complaint, but it is not so easy.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024/2025), Amazon Prime Video

Mohammad Rasoulof's Oscar-nominated film The Seed of the Sacred Fig was shot in secret, and is a high-stakes family drama that incorporates real footage from the Women, Life, Freedom protests.

Amidst political unrest in Iran, when an investigating judge's gun goes missing, his paranoia shoots up, and strains ties with his wife and daughter.

It Was Just an Accident (2025), Amazon Prime Video

Jafar Panahi's latest film, a 2026 Oscar nominee, is a knockout story about trauma, revenge and forgiveness.

Vahid, a car mechanic, encounters a man, who, he suspects, was the one who tortured and interrogated him when he was incarcerated as a political prisoner. When he denies the charge, Vahid kidnaps him and rounds up other ex-prisoners to confirm his identity.

Photographs curated by Satish Bodas/Rediff