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Author
Description
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg is a short story by Mark Twain and was published in 1899. It tells the story of the destruction of a small town (known as Hadleyburg), which is known far and wide as an honest and moral community. The people of the town enjoy the reputation of being honest. They isolated themselves and their babies from outsiders; when their children are still babies, keeping them sheltered from any kind of temptation.
However, a...
2) The Devil
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Description
The Devil is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, was published in 1911, after the write's death. It tells the story of a married landowner slowly overcome with unrelenting sexual desire for one of the peasants on his estate. Before his marriage, he had many sexual relationships with women while living in St. Petersburg. He inherited an estate in the country after the death of his father and he decided to leave the city. In his new life, he lives with his mother....
3) Typhoon
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Description
Typhoon is a novel by Joseph Conrad and is published in 1902. It tells the story of a steamship captain who gets into a major typhoon and the crew's struggle to survive the raging waters. The novel has two main character: Captain Macwhirr and Young Mr. Jukes.
Macwhirr is captain of SS Nan-Shan, a British-built steamer. He is gruff, empirical and without imagination. In contrast, Mr.
Jukes - the first mate of Macwhirr - is a literate and intelligent...
4) Ambrosia
Author
Description
Ambrosia is the story of an Iranian-Canadian couple, Ali and Leila, who dream of an exciting future in Vancouver. Ali owns a pizza shop and thinks of expanding and Leila is an up-and-coming clothing designer. However, their situations change dramatically when Ali's shop is affected by the bad economy and Leila is hired to work at a fashion design firm.
Author
Description
When he was just 16, Akbar (Hossein Farzi-Zadeh) killed his girlfriend. Two years later, he's being transferred to an adult prison where he must wait to die. But the sentence could be changed to life imprisonment if the bereaved father, Rahmati (Faramarz Gharibian), forgives the young man his horrific crime. With Rahmati unreceptive, Akbar's friend (Babak Ansari) and sister (Taraneh Alidoosti) try to elicit sympathy by raising money for an operation...
7) The Gambler
Author
Description
The Gambler is the short novel by Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky tells the story of a young tutor named Alexey Ivanovitch, who works in the household of an imperious Russian general. He wants to break through the wall of the established order in Russia. To reach this goal, he tries to achieve money and power by gambling. He descends further and further into a life of roulettes and casino living and sinks himself in the endless downward...
Author
Description
The Shadow Line is a short novel by Joseph Conrad and was published in 1917. It tells the story of a young man whose dream to be a captain of his ship comes true accidentally. He should command a boat from Bangkok to Singapore filled with sick passengers. His crew gets infected by malaria, and he finds out the medicine necessary to save them is missing deliberately after a couple of days wandering in the sea with no wind in sight. His mate convinces...
9) Ava
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Description
Based on her own adolescent experiences, Sadaf Foroughi's Ava is a gripping debut about a young girl's coming-of-age in a strict, traditional society. Living with her well-to-do parents in Tehran, Ava is a bright and focused teen whose concerns - friendships, music, social status, academic performance - resemble that of nearly any teenager. When Ava's mistrustful and overprotective mother questions her relationship with a boy - going so far as to...
Author
Description
From the two-time Academy Award winning director of The Salesman and A Separation, Asghar Farhadi's Fireworks Wednesday is a gripping, suspenseful drama – a story of marital intrigue and betrayal set against the backdrop of the Persian New Year. Rouhi, a young bride-to-be, is hired as a maid for an affluent family in Tehran. Upon arriving, she is suddenly thrust into an explosive domestic conflict. The wife is convinced her husband is having an...
11) Kandahar
Pub. Date
2001.
Description
Nafas an Afghan-born Canadian journalist, returns to her homeland in a desperate attempt to reach her sister, who, overcome with grief after being injured by a landmine and her despair over the Taliban's oppression of women, has vowed that she will commit suicide at the time of the next solar eclipse, only three days away.
Author
Description
A woman who killed her husband, a woman who killed her children, a woman who killed her rapist; along a dark corridor of prison cells, deep in Tehran, these women speak. With evocative cinematography, devastating interviews and remarkable access, this doc peels back the layers of the women's narratives, uncovering tales of coercion, abuse and drugs. All are victims of a male-dominated society, with the odds stacked against them from the start.
13) Father Sergius
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Description
Father Sergius is a short story by Leo Tolstoy and was published in 1911. It tells the story of a young prince — known as Stepan Kasatsky - who becomes a priest. In the court, he falls in love with Countess Mary Korotkova and becomes engaged to her. But soon he discovers his fiancée was once a mistress to the emperor, Tsar Nicholas I.
This incident devastates him and he decides to leave the court and becomes a monk. As he is an ambitious high...
14) Radio Dreams
Author
Description
A brilliant and misunderstood Iranian writer struggles to pursue his ambitious goal of bringing together Metallica and Kabul Dreams, Afghanistan's first rock band.
15) White Nights
Author
Description
White Nights is a short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, published in 1848, early in the writer's career. The story tells about unfortunate young man who is lonely and shy. He strolls the streets of 1840s Saint Petersburg contemplating his solitude when he happens upon a young woman in tears.
While escorting her home, the two have a conversation and soon become friends. The young man has never had a romantic connection with a woman until he meets her....
16) The Orphanage
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Description
Set in late Soviet-era Afghanistan, this coming-of-age tale from Shahrbanoo Sadat follows her acclaimed debut Wolf and Sheep and is the second film in a planned pentalogy based on the diary of writer Anwar Hashimi. Protagonist Qodrat returns, now a 15-year-old boy who is sent to a state orphanage after getting caught selling black market cinema tickets. Coping with bullies, friendship and a nascent romance, Qodrat finds escape in Bollywood-esque song-and-dance...
17) Baran
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Description
In a Tehran building site, 17-year-old Lateef's coworker falls from the building and the worker's son, Rahmat, enters the scene to become the new provider for his family. As Lateef is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, it's not until it's revealed that Rahmat is actually a young woman posing as a man, that both of their lives are forever changed! A humorous, moving love story of the most romantic kind.
18) Hit the Road
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Description
Panah Panahi, son and collaborator of embattled filmmaker Jafar Panahi and apprentice to Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami, makes a striking feature debut with this charming, sharp-witted, and deeply moving comic drama. Hit the Road takes the tradition of the Iranian road-trip movie and adds unexpected twists and turns. It follows a family of four - two middle-aged parents and their sons, one a taciturn adult, the other a ebullient six-year-old - as...
Author
Description
Clandestinely produced in disavowal of a 20-year filmmaking ban passed down by the Iranian authorities, the scathing Manuscripts Don't Burn brings a whole new level of clarity and audacity to Mohommad Rasoulof's already laudable career. Drawing from the true story of the government's attempted 1995 murder of several prominent writers and intellectuals, Rasoulof imagines a repressive regime so pervasive that even the morally righteous are subsumed...
20) Zapas
Author
Description
The world's deepest cold-water spring is in the city of Ramiyan. An old tradition says that all the youth of the city need to climb the waterfall and jump into this spring in order to become men. And by floundering the right way, they reach peace of mind. This unique tale is from director Borzou Niknejad, the director of the hit "Inadvertant." In Persian with English subtitles.