Hadi Afarideh

Valiasr Street, seventeen kilometers long, connects the south of Tehran to the north and the Alborz mountain range. When this street was built, the parties decorated it with more than 60,000 plane saplings. But today, only about eight thousand plane trees are standing on this street.

The Memory of NiAvaran is a documentary that examines the ancient times of Shemiranat village and Niavaran region, and besides the anthropological observation of the people of this region, it also pays special attention to the Niavaran palace complex. The events of Niavaran Palace and its capture during the Iranian revolution are also considered in this film.

"Curtain Reading" (pardeh khani) is a dying traditional Iranian art form and the antecedent of Ta'zieh. Traveling performers would mount murals depicting scenes from the Shahnameh, and later, religious scenes, while theatrically recounting the stories. Today, very few readers remain. The film interviews remaining descendants of reader families along with various others to discuss the legacy and history of this practice. It also shows historic photographs and film clips of performances.

Aqueducts or Kariz were invented and developed by Iranians in the dry regions of Persia in the first millennium BC. This technology was an underground channel that carried fresh water several kilometres from mountain slopes to plains so that farmers and settlers in those areas could survive the long droughts.

Sistan and Baluchestan Province is located in the southeast of Iran in an arid desert climate. Due to the drought, most of the villagers were forced to immigrate to other towns. This documentary shows two lifestyles in the desert region. One group gives in to the conditions and emigrates, and on the other hand, someone who in the same conditions, builds a Baluchi Garden and an artificial lake with floodwater.

In the last decade, keeping special pets such as snakes, tarantulas, alligators, monkeys, and even scorpions has become very common in Iranian houses. Unlike domestic pets such as dogs, these animals do not need to go outside the house and they are kept in the closed apartment spaces. Due to the increasing demand for buying various pets, a large underground network has been created to buy and sell animals, and keeping pets has become a strong culture and economy in Iran.

A documentary by Hadi Afarideh