Maryam Sepehri

An Iranian actor named Akbar is trying to become a serious actor instead of the clown everyone considers him to be. However financial problems force him to abandon his dream of being an artistic actor. He also has to deal with his family problems and his wife's inability to become pregnant.

At the center of this documentary are Hamid Naficy, a historian of Middle Eastern and Iranian cinema and his family, who remained in Iran. Behind them, however, we see the shadows of thousands of other families whose offspring - artists, researchers, scientists - live far away from their homeland. In following Naficy's personal and professional life, this documentary reels in his generation as well, to explore identity, immigration, exile and the cultural purgatory that is created as immigrants try to preserve their ancestral sense of belonging while seeking to establish a new home.

Alborz: We Climb Mountains (2023, 84 mins.), tells the story of the school during many tumultuous years in Iran’s modern history, from the perspectives of its graduates, teachers, and even Dr. Mojtahedi’s own voice from archival recordings; it tells it with humor, fondness, and nostalgia for a bygone era. It exemplifies what has been lost in the years since the 1979 Revolution and why today so many among the bright and promising young Iranians sound critical of current policies and administrative mishandling of one of their country’s once top educational institutions.