TIME-BENDING MYSTERIES OF SHAHRAM MOKRI

A 4-film set of the genre-defying, time-bending mysteries of Iranian director Shahram Mokri including FISH & CAT and CARELESS CRIME CARELESS CRIME (JENAYAT-E BI DEGHAT), 2020. Shahram Mokri's mind-bending mystery leapfrogs between past and present to create an unforgettable picture of Time as an elastic, constantly spinning Moebius strip. Inspired by a real-life tragedy, the infamous Cinema Rex fire in 1978 that triggered the Iranian Revolution, CARELESS CRIME follows three "timelines" - of arsonists planning to burn down a movie theatre; of workers and students at the cinema; and of characters within the film screening at the cinema - which may or may not all be happening at the same time. FISH & CAT (MAHI VA GORBEH), 2013. A group of attractive young Iranian kite-flying enthusiasts gather at a dismal lake, near a restaurant where two sinister characters straight out of TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE are serving up grisly fare. Shahram Mokri's breakout second feature is an unclassifiably brilliant, single-shot meditation on 1970s American slasher films like FRIDAY THE 13th but filtered through a purely art-house lens. Eerie, circular and overwhelmingly mysterious, with strange and unexpected tangents, weird tales of phantom lights, and an insistent, repetitive dream logic, FISH & CAT is a "horror" film in the same way Tarkovsky's STALKER is "science fiction." ASHKAN, THE CHARMED RING AND OTHER STORIES (ASHKAN, ANGOSHTAR-E MOTEBAREK VA DASTAN-HAYE DIGAR), 2008. Shahram Mokri's first feature is a delightfully offbeat B&W comedy about the mysterious workings of Fate, played out in deadpan Jim Jarmusch-meets-Quentin Tarantino-like vignettes. INVASION (HOJOOM), 2017. Mokri's third film is a science-fiction / detective / vampire story, with nods to stylized New Wave-era films like LIQUID SKY. Sometime in the future, teams of tattooed athletes play a vaguely defined sport in a labyrinthine stadium where a murder has taken place. When police try to reconstruct the crime, teammates of the murdered man force his vampiric twin sister to assume his identity, in hopes of killing her off too. Bonus Materials New 4-part video interview with Shahram Mokri about his career and the making of ASHKAN, FISH & CAT, INVASION and CARELESS CRIME Behind-the-scenes footage of CARELESS CRIME with new commentary by Shahram Mokri