Middle East movies
by MonikaKokolic | created - 31 Jan 2014 | updated - 07 Apr 2017 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Children of Heaven (1997)
PG | 89 min | Drama, Family, Sport
After a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Mohammad Amir Naji, Amir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahare Seddiqi, Nafise Jafar-Mohammadi
Votes: 80,773 | Gross: $0.93M
2. Miral (2010)
R | 112 min | Drama, History
A drama centered on an orphaned Palestinian girl growing up in the wake of Arab-Israeli war who finds herself drawn into the conflict.
Director: Julian Schnabel | Stars: Freida Pinto, Hiam Abbass, Willem Dafoe, Asma Al Shiukhy
Votes: 3,586 | Gross: $0.37M
3. The Song of Sparrows (2008)
PG | 96 min | Drama, Family
When an ostrich-rancher focuses on replacing his daughter's hearing aid, which breaks right before crucial exams, everything changes for a struggling rural family in Iran. Karim motorbikes ... See full summary »
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Mohammad Amir Naji, Maryam Akbari, Kamran Dehghan, Hamid Aghazi
Votes: 11,115 | Gross: $0.12M
4. Baran (2001)
PG | 94 min | Drama, Romance
In a building site in present-day Tehran, Lateef, a 17-year-old Turkish worker is irresistibly drawn to Rahmat, a young Afghan worker. The revelation of Rahmat's secret changes both their lives.
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Hossein Abedini, Zahra Bahrami, Mohammad Amir Naji, Hossein Mahjoub
Votes: 8,964 | Gross: $0.13M
5. A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Not Rated | 80 min | Drama, War
Young Iranian Kurdish siblings try to save the youngest of them, who is seriously ill.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Ayoub Ahmadi, Rojin Younessi, Amaneh Ekhtiar-dini, Madi Ekhtiar-dini
Votes: 8,836 | Gross: $0.70M
6. A Separation (2011)
PG-13 | 123 min | Drama
A married couple are faced with a difficult decision - to improve the life of their child by moving to another country or to stay in Iran and look after a deteriorating parent who has Alzheimer's disease.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Payman Maadi, Leila Hatami, Sareh Bayat, Shahab Hosseini
Votes: 258,674 | Gross: $7.10M
7. The Past (2013)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, Mystery
An Iranian man deserts his French wife and her two children to return to his homeland. Meanwhile, his wife starts up a new relationship, a reality her husband confronts upon his wife's request for a divorce.
Director: Asghar Farhadi | Stars: Bérénice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, Ali Mosaffa, Pauline Burlet
Votes: 50,915 | Gross: $1.33M
8. Turtles Can Fly (2004)
PG-13 | 98 min | Drama, War
Near the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Feysal, Hiresh Feysal Rahman
Votes: 20,765 | Gross: $0.26M
9. The Color of Paradise (1999)
PG | 90 min | Drama, Family
The story of Mohammed, a blind Iranian boy and his father, Hashem, who is always oscillating between accepting his son as he is and abandoning him, as he represents a burden for him, after the loss of his wife.
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Hossein Mahjoub, Mohsen Ramezani, Salameh Feyzi, Farahnaz Safari
Votes: 18,208 | Gross: $1.81M
10. Blackboards (2000)
88 min | Drama, War
Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a ... See full summary »
Director: Samira Makhmalbaf | Stars: Said Mohamadi, Behnaz Jafari, Bahman Ghobadi, Mohamad Karim Rahmati
Votes: 2,906 | Gross: $0.00M
11. The Wind Will Carry Us (1999)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama
Irreverent city engineer Behzad comes to a rural village in Iran to keep vigil for a dying relative. In the meanwhile the film follows his efforts to fit in with the local community and how he changes his own attitudes as a result.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Behzad Dorani, Noghre Asadi, Roushan Karam Elmi, Bahman Ghobadi
Votes: 12,333 | Gross: $0.21M
12. The Willow Tree (2005)
PG | 96 min | Drama
Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?
Director: Majid Majidi | Stars: Parviz Parastui, Roya Teymourian, Soghra Obeisi, Mohammad Amir Naji
Votes: 4,527 | Gross: $0.03M
13. The Other Son (2012)
PG-13 | 105 min | Drama
Two young men, one Israeli and one Palestinian, discover they were accidentally switched at birth.
Director: Lorraine Lévy | Stars: Emmanuelle Devos, Pascal Elbé, Jules Sitruk, Mehdi Dehbi
Votes: 3,778 | Gross: $1.16M
14. Wadjda (2012)
PG | 98 min | Comedy, Drama
An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Koran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
Director: Haifaa Al-Mansour | Stars: Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdullrahman Al Gohani, Ahd
Votes: 21,484 | Gross: $1.35M
15. No One Knows About Persian Cats (2009)
106 min | Drama, Music
Iranian musicians Negar and Ashkan look for band members to play at a London concert - and the visas that allow them to leave Tehran to do so.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Koshanejad, Hamed Behdad, Babak Mirzakhani
Votes: 7,482 | Gross: $0.08M
16. Half Moon (2006)
107 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
Mamo, an old and legendary Kurdish musician living in Iran, plans to give one final concert in Iraqi Kurdistan. After seven months of trying to get a permit and rounding up his ten sons, he... See full summary »
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Ismail Ghaffari, Allah-Morad Rashtian, Farzin Sabooni, Kambiz Arshi
Votes: 3,089 | Gross: $0.00M
17. Marooned in Iraq (2002)
100 min | Drama, War
During the war between Iran and Iraq, a group of Iranian Kurd musicians set off on an almost impossible mission. They will try to find Hanareh, a singer with a magic voice who crossed the ... See full summary »
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Shahab Ebrahimi, Faegh Mohamadi, Allah-Morad Rashtian, Rojan Hosseini
Votes: 1,625 | Gross: $0.14M
18. The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008)
R | 114 min | Drama
A story told by Zahra to a French journalist of her niece Soraya Manutchehri, a 35-year-old married woman, who received capital punishment and stoned to death because of false accusations in the remote village of Kuhpayeh, Iran, in 1986.
Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh | Stars: Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jim Caviezel, Mozhan Navabi, Navid Negahban
Votes: 21,747 | Gross: $0.66M
19. The Patience Stone (2012)
R | 102 min | Drama, War
In a war ridden country a woman watches over the husband reduced to a vegetable state by a bullet in the neck, abandoned by Jihad companions and brothers. One day, the woman decides to say things to him she could never have done before.
Director: Atiq Rahimi | Stars: Golshifteh Farahani, Hamid Djavadan, Hassina Burgan, Massi Mrowat
Votes: 5,494 | Gross: $0.15M
20. Crimson Gold (2003)
Unrated | 95 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
An Iranian pizza delivery man sees the worst of corruption and social unbalance in his city and is driven to crime.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Hossain Emadeddin, Kamyar Sheisi, Azita Rayeji, Shahram Vaziri
Votes: 5,305 | Gross: $0.15M
21. The White Balloon (1995)
Unrated | 85 min | Drama, Family
Several people try to help a little girl to find the money her mom gave her to buy a goldfish with.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Aida Mohammadkhani, Mohsen Kafili, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy, Anna Borkowska
Votes: 8,249 | Gross: $0.47M
22. The Mirror (1997)
95 min | Drama
When a young girl becomes lost in the hustle and bustle of Tehran, her journey turns into a dazzling exercise on the nature of film itself.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Mina Mohammad Khani, Kazem Mojdehi, Naser Omuni, M. Shirzad
Votes: 3,139 | Gross: $0.04M
23. Rhino Season (2012)
88 min | Drama, Thriller
Kurdish-Iranian poet Sahel has just been released from a thirty-year prison sentence in Iran. Now the one thing keeping him going is the thought of finding his wife, who thinks him dead for over twenty years.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Behrouz Vossoughi, Monica Bellucci, Yilmaz Erdogan, Caner Cindoruk
Votes: 7,301
24. Osama (2003)
PG-13 | 83 min | Drama
After the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the restriction of women in public life, a pre-teen girl is forced to masquerade as a boy in order to find work to support her mother and grandmother.
Director: Siddiq Barmak | Stars: Marina Golbahari, Zubaida Sahar, Khwaja Nader, Mohammad Arif Herati
Votes: 9,533 | Gross: $1.13M
25. S#x Acts (2012)
TV-MA | 100 min | Drama
Gili changes schools and hooks up with the most popular guy to improve her social status. He passes her off to friend after friend and the lines of consent begin to blur.
Director: Johnathan Gurfinkel | Stars: Sivan Levy, Eviatar Mor, Roy Nik, Niv Zilberberg
Votes: 680
26. The Cow (1969)
Not Rated | 104 min | Drama
An old villager deeply in love with his cow goes to the capital for a while. While he's there, the cow dies and now the villagers are afraid of his possible reaction to it when he returns.
Director: Dariush Mehrjui | Stars: Ezzatolah Entezami, Mahin Shahabi, Ali Nasirian, Jamshid Mashayekhi
Votes: 7,995
27. Jîn (2013)
122 min | Drama
Jin, a guerrilla, lives in a cave and decides to escape from the organization. She finds some civilian clothes and goes down from the mountain to the city. However, the city is no safer than the mountain.
Director: Reha Erdem | Stars: Deniz Hasgüler, Onur Ünsal, Yildirim Simsek, Ayris Alptekin
Votes: 2,056
28. The Circle (2000)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama
Various women struggle to function in the oppressively sexist society of contemporary Iran.
Director: Jafar Panahi | Stars: Maryiam Palvin Almani, Nargess Mamizadeh, Mojgan Faramarzi, Elham Saboktakin
Votes: 6,688 | Gross: $0.67M
29. Through the Olive Trees (1994)
G | 103 min | Drama
A depiction of the off-screen relationship between the actors who play the newlyweds in the film And Life Goes On (1992).
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Mohamad Ali Keshavarz, Farhad Kheradmand, Zarifeh Shiva, Hossein Rezai
Votes: 10,010 | Gross: $0.04M
30. Taste of Cherry (1997)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama
An Iranian man drives his car in search of someone who will quietly bury him under a cherry tree after he commits suicide.
Director: Abbas Kiarostami | Stars: Homayoun Ershadi, Abdolhosein Bagheri, Afshin Khorshid Bakhtiari, Safar Ali Moradi
Votes: 36,815 | Gross: $0.31M
31. My Sweet Pepper Land (2013)
100 min | Drama
Baran, a Kurdish independence war hero, is now sheriff in Erbil, the capital city. No longer feeling useful in this society now at peace, he thinks about quitting the police force, but ... See full summary »
Director: Hiner Saleem | Stars: Korkmaz Arslan, Golshifteh Farahani, Suat Usta, Mir Murad Bedirxan
Votes: 2,530
32. Asmaa (2011)
96 min | Drama
A woman who suffers from AIDS decides not to surrender to the fatal disease. She exerts huge efforts in trying to recover or by helping those who suffer the same disease by giving them glimmers of hope.
Director: Amr Salama | Stars: Hind Sabri, Maged El-Kidwani, Hany Adel, Dana Abed
Votes: 4,834
33. Theeb (2014)
Not Rated | 100 min | Adventure, Drama, Thriller
In the Ottoman province of Hijaz during World War I, a young Bedouin boy experiences a greatly hastened coming-of-age as he embarks on a perilous desert journey to guide a British officer to his secret destination.
Director: Naji Abu Nowar | Stars: Jacir Eid Al-Hwietat, Hussein Salameh Al-Sweilhiyeen, Hassan Mutlag Al-Maraiyeh, Jack Fox
Votes: 11,520 | Gross: $0.28M
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