Mohsen Makhmalbaf weaves a gorgeous tale very much like the colorful, hand-woven rug, the gabbeh, for which the film is named and from which the image of the main character emerges. A young woman named Gabbeh travels with her tribe, followed at some distance on horseback by the man she would marry, though her family forbids it. As she traverses river and mountain, she never takes her eyes off him. In setting his recent film in Southeast Iran, where nomadic tribes are known for distinctive carpets inspired by their lives and extraordinary landscape, Makhmalbaf acknowledges the central place in Iranian culture of a people threatened with extinction and links the new cinema of Iran to the Persian traditions of weaving and poetic storytelling. He says of his film that it “shows us how life creates works of art.” Saturated in color, woven with fabulous imagery and multiple narrative routes, this is Makhmalbaf’s most exquisite film,

“A jewel in the crown of Iranian cinema.” – Variety

(1966, 75 min, in Farsi w/English subtitles)

Thursday, January 8, 7:00 PM