The List
Iranian Cinema Against the Wall
No cinema works harder under pressure.
8 films
Iran has been making masterpieces from inside a cage for decades — and that constraint has produced some of the most morally precise, emotionally devastating filmmaking in the world. These aren't films about politics. They're films about people: a couple unraveling in a courtroom, a doctor who can't look a grieving father in the eye, a man who refuses to pay a bribe. From Farhadi to Rasoulof — ordinary people placed under extraordinary pressure, and the impossible choices that follow.
