Celluloid Underground

Ehsan Khoshbakht’s riveting autobiographical documentary is an immersive portrait of postrevolutionary Iran and a stirring testament to the power of cinema to resist tyranny. It’s the story of his formative friendship with the mysterious Ahmad, a maverick film collector who, in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution, becomes an unlikely hero as he undertakes the courageous mission of hiding thousands of banned 35 mm film prints in downtown Tehran basements. Obsessed with the movies he wasn’t allowed to see growing up, Ehsan becomes Ahmad’s closest collaborator in the underground cinematheque, risking arrest and torture in the fight against cultural repression, before escaping to a new life in London. From the pain of exile, he questions whether their shared obsession was worth the price they paid for it.