Kamran Shirdel
2021He studied architecture and urbanism at the University of Rome and film direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome, graduating in 1964. He worked as an assistant director with John Huston on The Bible before making his diploma film, Gli Specchi (The Mirrors), in Rome. He returned to Iran and started his career in 1965.
Shirdel is the founder and director of the Kish International Documentary Film Festival which is held yearly in the January in Kish Island in the Persian Gulf. He is also the managing director of Filmgrafic Co. Kamran Shirdel was appointed as IL CAVALIERE Della Republica Italiana and received the Medals of LA STELLA DELLA SOLIDARIETA' ITALIANA in a ceremony held in Farmanieh Palace in Tehran on May 2010.
Qaleh
Kamran Shirdel
The film shows the life of prostitutes in Tehran's city brothels, an area known as Shahre Now. The film closely follows a number of women and communicates how the burden of social constraints led them to surrender in the face of their common fate. The film does explore the possibility of re-education and development for these women, but in no way does it paint over the hard and brutal reality. The film was produced on behalf of the Organization of Iranian Women and was immediately banned while shooting was still going on. After the revolution, a portion of the material was found, and Shirdel decided to finish the film using photos by the late Kaveh Golestan that were taken more than ten years after the film itself was shot.
Women's Quarter
صبح روز چهارم
Kamran Shirdel
Saeed Rad, Vejesta
A free adaptation from Godard's Breathless that follows Amir, a foul guy who has killed a man in Abadan. He returns to Tehran and continuing his misdeeds trying to convince his girlfriend Zarry to escape with him to the south of Iran.
The Morning of the Fourth Day
تهران پایتخت ایران است
Kamran Shirdel
Tehran Is the Capital of Iran (1966-79) documents life in a deprived district in the south of Tehran. The images of destitution in Tehran's poor areas is accompanied by a variety of spoken accounts: the official viewpoint on the district's living conditions, what the inhabitants have to say, and occasional extracts read out of school manuals. The key element in Shirdel's film is the counterpoint effect he creates with image and sound. His impressively powerful portrayal of social unease helps reinforce the impact of his astonishing documentary images and social themes.
Tehran Is the Capital of Iran
Nedamatgah
Kamran Shirdel
Women's Prison recounts the life of the prisoners and the problems their families encounter in their struggle to survive. Here again filmmaker Kamran Shirdel employs the cinema verité style. The interviews with the prisoners, social workers and teachers serve as commentaries for "constructed" documentary images.
Women's Prison
Solitude Opus 1
Kamran Shirdel
Waiting for Godot on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf, an island where decay and luxury life are neighbours. A man in his eighties believes that he is still in charge of a complex for alternative forms of energy which was abolished long ago. The pictures - an homage to the late and famous Iranian director Sohrab Shahid-Saless - contrast the comment speaking about the perspectives for a great future.
Solitude Opus 1
Gli Specchi
Kamran Shirdel
Kamran Shirdel's 1964 diploma film at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome unfolds in an urban apartment with a despondent man, who appears to be an artist or a writer, contemplating his existence through mirrors set about the room. Featuring the music of Anton Webern's Six Pieces for Orchestra Opus 6, the film has no dialogue. Gli Specchi, also known as The Mirrors, was made in the same period that saw Shirdel working as an assistant director for John Huston on The Bible and it went on to win the diploma of honor in the World Cinema School Film Festival in Tokyo in 1965.
The Mirrors
