Susan Taslimi

Maya Nilo (Laura)

Nilo is a feminist writer, living an orderly life with her husband and 13-year-old daughter Laura. When her irresponsible sister Maya, whose projects constantly tend to bomb, both "kidnaps" Nilo's Volvo and daughter and heads south, Nilo tags along. The goal of the trip is Portugal, where the sisters’ complicated mother recently diagnosed with cancer lives, together with Maya’s son, who it has finally become time to take responsibility for.

Black Crab

To end an apocalyptic war and save her daughter, a reluctant soldier embarks on a desperate mission to cross a frozen sea carrying a top-secret cargo.

Distant

A documentary about Susan Taslimi, she's an Iranian actress, film director, theatre director, and screenwriter. Taslimi emigrated from Iran in 1987.

The Charmer

A young Iranian man is desperately trying to meet women who can secure his stay in Denmark. As time runs out, he falls in love and his past catches up with him. The film deals with themes of race, class, and the struggle for a better life.

Razor's Edge: The Legacy of Iranian Actresses

An examination of the work and lives of actresses in the Iranian film industry prior to the 1979 revolution, featuring myriad interviews and rare film clips.

Wallander 22 - Angel of Death

A choir of young women gives a guest performance in a country church outside Ystad. But when an 18-year-old member of the choir disappears, Wallander is brought in to investigate.

Wallander

Wallander is a Swedish television series adapted from Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander novels and starring Krister Henriksson in the title role. The 1st series of 13 films was produced in 2005 and 2006, with one taken directly from a novel and the remainder with new storylines suggested by Mankell. The 2nd series of 13 films was shown between 2009 and 2010. The stories are set in Ystad near the southern tip of Sweden. The three films Before the Frost, Mastermind, and The Secret were premiered in cinemas, with the rest first released as direct-to-DVD movies. The first episode of the second series, Hämnden, was released in Swedish cinemas in January 2009; the rest of the series was made for television. The BBC aired all 26 episodes of the Swedish television versions on BBC Four. A third and final season, containing six 90 minute episodes, will air in 2013 with Charlotta Jonsson as Linda Wallander. The first episode, adapted from the novel The Troubled Man, was released in cinemas in January 2013.

Grænsen

Bashu, the Little Stranger

During the Iran-Iraq War, Bashu, a young boy loses his house and all his family. Scared, he sneaks into a truck that is leaving the area. He gets off the truck in the Northern part of the country, where everything from landscape to language is different. He meets Naii, who is trying to raise her two young children on a farm, while her husband is away. Despite cultural differences, and the fact that they do not speak the same language, Bashu and Naii slowly form a strong bond.

Maybe Some Other Time

Famed actress Susan Taslimi plays three roles here: Kian, who doubts her identity; Vida, the twin sister, a self-assured artist; and their mother, who gives up one child out of fear of poverty, then deprives the other of affection because she deeply regrets the child whom she has abandoned.

The Spell

A young couple accept an arranged marriage to stop the fighting between their respective clans. On the way home from their wedding, they get lost in a dark forest on a stormy night. They take refuge in an eerie mansion, inhabited by an old man obsessed with the past, and his creepy servant. As the night progresses, they learn the terrible secrets hidden in the house. Similar to many other films in this genre, with a few interesting plot turns.

The Mare

Noted Iranian actress Susan Taslimi plays an impoverished single mother who agees to marry off her 13-year-old daughter to a middle-aged man in return for a mare, which will help her earn an income and provide for her younger children. Director Ali Zhekan paints a stark picture of poverty and patriarchy in rural Iran (the mother stores her rice in a container hidden in a tree; her brother, who brokered the wedding, mercilessly beats the recalcitrant child), but this 1986 film is distinguished mostly by Taslimi's increasingly fiery performance as the mother decides to defend her daughter's freedom.