Marjane Satrapi’s Woman, Life, Freedom: Tyranny and a Feminist Revolution

Golden Children of the Regime, by Bolaños

One of the contenders for this year’s Oscar for Best International Film is The Seed of the Sacred Fig. Secretly filmed in Tehran, the fictional screenplay takes place during the weeks of protest that followed the nonfictional death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman who died in police custody…

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Baraye and The Power of Music To Buoy a Cultural Revolution

Illustration by Shabnam Adiban

People worldwide will be tuning into the 2025 Grammy Awards on Sunday night. With my kids now out of the house, I’m no longer in the loop regarding this year’s list of nominees. However, this week I want to resurface a Grammy-winning ballad from 2023—Baraye, by Iranian singer-songwriter Shervin Hajipour.…

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French Fingerprints on Two More Oscar-Worthy Works of Genius

Focus image French co-productions

Movie trends fluctuate over time and 2024 seems to have been a particularly fruitful year for the French film industry. While box office revenues in the United States are still well below pre-pandemic levels, ticket sales in France had largely recovered by the end of 2023 and continued to grow…

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