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DEAF CROCODILE TO RELEASE ALL FOUR FEATURE FILMS BY AWARD-WINNING IRANIAN FILMMAKER SHAHRAM MOKRI ON SPECIAL 4-DISC BLU-RAY BOX SET
“The Time-Bending Mysteries of Shahram Mokri” Blu-ray box set includes his genre-defying CARELESS CRIME; FISH & CAT; INVASION; and ASHKAN, THE CHARMED RING & OTHER STORIES — Available for the first time on home video in the US!
PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE HERE ON THE VINEGAR SYNDROME WEBSITE
https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collecti...deaf-crocodile
June 3, 2022 -- Hollywood, CA— Deaf Crocodile Films is proud to announce the upcoming release on Blu-ray of all four feature films by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Shahram Mokri. The Blu-ray box set contains his groundbreaking Iranian films CARELESS CRIME (2020), FISH & CAT (2013), INVASION (2017) and ASHKAN, THE CHARMED RING & THE OTHER STORIES (2008), all of which straddle the line between arthouse and genre filmmaking in their surreal tales of serial killers and kite flyers, New Wave vampires, and arsonists lost in time. Following an impressive global film festival run that included winning the Bisato d’Oro Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 77th Venice Film Festival in 2020, CARELESS CRIME (JENAYAT-E BI DEGHAT) had a week-long run at The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in early 2022, followed by a complete retrospective of Mokri’s films at the American Film Institute in Silver Springs, MD.
The special edition box set includes a new 4-part video interview with Mokri about his career and the making of his films; behind-the-scenes footage of CARELESS CRIME with new commentary by Mokri; a new English translation of an essay on Mokri’s breakout film FISH & CAT from the Iranian cinema magazine “24” by author Mohammad Vahdani; and a detailed cartoon map of the dramatic action in FISH & CAT, also from “24” magazine. The box set is available for pre-order through Deaf Croc’s partner label OCN-Vinegar Syndrome here: https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collecti...deaf-crocodile
“It's a big deal for me to be able to present my movies in North America,” comments Shahram Mokri. “I’m very impressed that Deaf Crocodile Films is trying to introduce films from distant lands and different cultures in America, movies that may initially seem strange to the audience there. I'm very blessed and excited that they’ve chosen CARELESS CRIME as one of these films.”
Dennis Bartok, Deaf Crocodile’s Co-Founder and Head of Distribution and Acquisition, comments on Mokri’s singular work: “What is Time? What is Memory? Are we in the past or present — or some strange, unknowable hybrid of the two haunted by arsonists, bloodsuckers, serial killers, and phantom images of our own selves? The films of Shahram Mokri straddle the line between genre and arthouse cinema, whether Moebius strip-like meditations on classic 1970s American slasher films (FISH & CAT), political thrillers (CARELESS CRIME), 1980s New Wave sci-fi/vampire movies (INVASION), or offbeat Jarmusch-meets-Tarantino indie mysteries (ASHKAN, THE HOLY RING & OTHER STORIES). It’s small wonder that Abbas Kiarostami in his last film, 24 FRAMES, left a cryptic message onscreen in Persian that simply read: ‘Shahram Mokri.’”
Craig Rogers, Deaf Crocodile’s Co-Founder and Head of Post-Production and Restoration, adds, “To paraphrase Shahram himself ... When you watch movies that use a non-linear narrative, what you're actually doing is imagining them in a linear format. Your brain enjoys solving that temporal puzzle. Shahram's films rid your brain of that power. He's creating temporal puzzles our brains cannot solve. He is playing with the medium in ways we've not experienced before — and it's exhilarating!”
CARELESS CRIME (JENAYAT-E BI DEGHAT), 2020, Iran, Deaf Crocodile Films (U.S.), 134 min. One of the most dazzling and enigmatic films in recent memory, Iranian director Shahram Mokri’s mind-bending mystery leapfrogs between past and present, fact and fiction to create an unforgettable picture of time not as a straight line, but 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. Comparisons abound, to the work of Chris Marker (LA JETEE), to Hitchcock’s VERTIGO, to Wojciech Has’s THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT, but Mokri’s film is a magnificent, multi-faceted puzzlebox all its own. Time and the way Cinema represents it are really the main characters in CARELESS CRIME, alternately reinforcing and frustrating each other — all fueled by a tragedy so ferocious that it’s literally burned a hole through the fabric of reality. With Babak Karimi, Abolfazl Kahani, Adel Yaraghi, Behzad Dorani, Elaheh Bakhshi. (In Persian with English subtitles.) Winner of the Bisato d’Oro Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 77th Venice Film Festival, 2020. Winner of the Silver Hugo Jury Prize at the Chicago International Film Festival 2020.
“Time doesn’t just shift in Shahram Mokri’s Iranian drama about a fire at a cinema that killed 478, it also folds like origami and pirouettes, the past and present so close as they dance they can feel each other’s breath.” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film UK.
FISH & CAT (MAHI VA GORBEH), 2013, Iran (Deaf Crocodile, U.S.), 134 min. 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.” With Babak Karimi, Saeed Ebrahimifar, Abed Abest, Ainaz Azarhoush. (In Persian with English subtitles.)
ASHKAN, THE CHARMED RING AND OTHER STORIES (ASHKAN, ANGOSHTAR-E MOTEBAREK VA DASTAN-HAYE DIGAR), 2008, Iran (Deaf Crocodile, U.S.), 92 min. Director 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. Two blind jewel thieves, a young man who can’t succeed at killing himself, a love-struck police officer, and two female morgue attendants find their lives interconnected when an unusual fish is set free and a charmed ring is moved. Watch for sly references to film noir classics including LE SAMOURAI and KISS ME DEADLY in this wonderful and eccentric Iranian gem. With: Saeed Ebrahimifar, Sina Razani, Reza Behboudi, Siamak Safari, Ali Sarabi, Pegah Tabasinejad. (In Persian with English subtitles.)
INVASION (HOJOOM), 2017, Iran (Deaf Crocodile, U.S.), 102 min. Director Shahram Mokri’s third and most formally challenging film continues the time-bending, single-shot experimentation of FISH & CAT (and later, CARELESS CRIME) in a science-fiction/detective/vampire story, with nods to stylized 1980s New Wave-era films like LIQUID SKY. Sometime in the future, teams of tattooed athletes play a vaguely defined sport in an ominous, 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. But all too soon time, identity and the bonds of reality break down in another of Mokri’s fascinating, genre-defying creations. With Abed Abest, Babak Karimi, Elaheh Bakhshi, Behzad Dorani. (In Persian with English subtitles.)
Blu-ray Box Set includes:
* First-ever U.S. release of all 4 of Mokri’s groundbreaking features:
- ASHKAN, THE CHARMED RING AND OTHER STORIES (ASHKAN, ANGOSHTAR-E MOTEBAREK VA DASTAN-HAYE DIGAR), 2008, 92 min.
- FISH & CAT (MAHI VA GORBEH), 2013, 134 min.
- INVASION (HOJOOM), 2017, 102 min.
- CARELESS CRIME (JENAYAT-E BI DEGHAT), 2020, 134 min.
[Features in Persian with English subtitles.]
* New 4-part video interview with Shahram Mokri about his career and the making of ASHKAN, FISH & CAT, INVASION and CARELESS CRIME (225 min. total, in Persian with English subtitles)
* Behind-the-scenes footage of CARELESS CRIME with new commentary by Shahram Mokri (23 min., in Persian with English subtitles)
* New English translation of essay by author Mohammed Vahdani (originally published in “24” magazine)
*Detailed map of the dramatic action in FISH & CAT (originally published in “24” magazine)
Following the Blu-ray release, Deaf Crocodile will release all four features on digital.
DEAF CROCODILE TO RELEASE ALL FOUR FEATURE FILMS BY AWARD-WINNING IRANIAN FILMMAKER SHAHRAM MOKRI ON SPECIAL 4-DISC BLU-RAY BOX SET
“The Time-Bending Mysteries of Shahram Mokri” Blu-ray box set includes his genre-defying CARELESS CRIME; FISH & CAT; INVASION; and ASHKAN, THE CHARMED RING & OTHER STORIES — Available for the first time on home video in the US!
PRE-ORDER AVAILABLE HERE ON THE VINEGAR SYNDROME WEBSITE
https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collecti...deaf-crocodile
June 3, 2022 -- Hollywood, CA— Deaf Crocodile Films is proud to announce the upcoming release on Blu-ray of all four feature films by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Shahram Mokri. The Blu-ray box set contains his groundbreaking Iranian films CARELESS CRIME (2020), FISH & CAT (2013), INVASION (2017) and ASHKAN, THE CHARMED RING & THE OTHER STORIES (2008), all of which straddle the line between arthouse and genre filmmaking in their surreal tales of serial killers and kite flyers, New Wave vampires, and arsonists lost in time. Following an impressive global film festival run that included winning the Bisato d’Oro Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 77th Venice Film Festival in 2020, CARELESS CRIME (JENAYAT-E BI DEGHAT) had a week-long run at The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) in early 2022, followed by a complete retrospective of Mokri’s films at the American Film Institute in Silver Springs, MD.
The special edition box set includes a new 4-part video interview with Mokri about his career and the making of his films; behind-the-scenes footage of CARELESS CRIME with new commentary by Mokri; a new English translation of an essay on Mokri’s breakout film FISH & CAT from the Iranian cinema magazine “24” by author Mohammad Vahdani; and a detailed cartoon map of the dramatic action in FISH & CAT, also from “24” magazine. The box set is available for pre-order through Deaf Croc’s partner label OCN-Vinegar Syndrome here: https://vinegarsyndrome.com/collecti...deaf-crocodile
“It's a big deal for me to be able to present my movies in North America,” comments Shahram Mokri. “I’m very impressed that Deaf Crocodile Films is trying to introduce films from distant lands and different cultures in America, movies that may initially seem strange to the audience there. I'm very blessed and excited that they’ve chosen CARELESS CRIME as one of these films.”
Dennis Bartok, Deaf Crocodile’s Co-Founder and Head of Distribution and Acquisition, comments on Mokri’s singular work: “What is Time? What is Memory? Are we in the past or present — or some strange, unknowable hybrid of the two haunted by arsonists, bloodsuckers, serial killers, and phantom images of our own selves? The films of Shahram Mokri straddle the line between genre and arthouse cinema, whether Moebius strip-like meditations on classic 1970s American slasher films (FISH & CAT), political thrillers (CARELESS CRIME), 1980s New Wave sci-fi/vampire movies (INVASION), or offbeat Jarmusch-meets-Tarantino indie mysteries (ASHKAN, THE HOLY RING & OTHER STORIES). It’s small wonder that Abbas Kiarostami in his last film, 24 FRAMES, left a cryptic message onscreen in Persian that simply read: ‘Shahram Mokri.’”
Craig Rogers, Deaf Crocodile’s Co-Founder and Head of Post-Production and Restoration, adds, “To paraphrase Shahram himself ... When you watch movies that use a non-linear narrative, what you're actually doing is imagining them in a linear format. Your brain enjoys solving that temporal puzzle. Shahram's films rid your brain of that power. He's creating temporal puzzles our brains cannot solve. He is playing with the medium in ways we've not experienced before — and it's exhilarating!”
CARELESS CRIME (JENAYAT-E BI DEGHAT), 2020, Iran, Deaf Crocodile Films (U.S.), 134 min. One of the most dazzling and enigmatic films in recent memory, Iranian director Shahram Mokri’s mind-bending mystery leapfrogs between past and present, fact and fiction to create an unforgettable picture of time not as a straight line, but 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. Comparisons abound, to the work of Chris Marker (LA JETEE), to Hitchcock’s VERTIGO, to Wojciech Has’s THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT, but Mokri’s film is a magnificent, multi-faceted puzzlebox all its own. Time and the way Cinema represents it are really the main characters in CARELESS CRIME, alternately reinforcing and frustrating each other — all fueled by a tragedy so ferocious that it’s literally burned a hole through the fabric of reality. With Babak Karimi, Abolfazl Kahani, Adel Yaraghi, Behzad Dorani, Elaheh Bakhshi. (In Persian with English subtitles.) Winner of the Bisato d’Oro Award for Best Original Screenplay at the 77th Venice Film Festival, 2020. Winner of the Silver Hugo Jury Prize at the Chicago International Film Festival 2020.
“Time doesn’t just shift in Shahram Mokri’s Iranian drama about a fire at a cinema that killed 478, it also folds like origami and pirouettes, the past and present so close as they dance they can feel each other’s breath.” – Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film UK.
FISH & CAT (MAHI VA GORBEH), 2013, Iran (Deaf Crocodile, U.S.), 134 min. 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.” With Babak Karimi, Saeed Ebrahimifar, Abed Abest, Ainaz Azarhoush. (In Persian with English subtitles.)
ASHKAN, THE CHARMED RING AND OTHER STORIES (ASHKAN, ANGOSHTAR-E MOTEBAREK VA DASTAN-HAYE DIGAR), 2008, Iran (Deaf Crocodile, U.S.), 92 min. Director 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. Two blind jewel thieves, a young man who can’t succeed at killing himself, a love-struck police officer, and two female morgue attendants find their lives interconnected when an unusual fish is set free and a charmed ring is moved. Watch for sly references to film noir classics including LE SAMOURAI and KISS ME DEADLY in this wonderful and eccentric Iranian gem. With: Saeed Ebrahimifar, Sina Razani, Reza Behboudi, Siamak Safari, Ali Sarabi, Pegah Tabasinejad. (In Persian with English subtitles.)
INVASION (HOJOOM), 2017, Iran (Deaf Crocodile, U.S.), 102 min. Director Shahram Mokri’s third and most formally challenging film continues the time-bending, single-shot experimentation of FISH & CAT (and later, CARELESS CRIME) in a science-fiction/detective/vampire story, with nods to stylized 1980s New Wave-era films like LIQUID SKY. Sometime in the future, teams of tattooed athletes play a vaguely defined sport in an ominous, 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. But all too soon time, identity and the bonds of reality break down in another of Mokri’s fascinating, genre-defying creations. With Abed Abest, Babak Karimi, Elaheh Bakhshi, Behzad Dorani. (In Persian with English subtitles.)
Blu-ray Box Set includes:
* First-ever U.S. release of all 4 of Mokri’s groundbreaking features:
- ASHKAN, THE CHARMED RING AND OTHER STORIES (ASHKAN, ANGOSHTAR-E MOTEBAREK VA DASTAN-HAYE DIGAR), 2008, 92 min.
- FISH & CAT (MAHI VA GORBEH), 2013, 134 min.
- INVASION (HOJOOM), 2017, 102 min.
- CARELESS CRIME (JENAYAT-E BI DEGHAT), 2020, 134 min.
[Features in Persian with English subtitles.]
* New 4-part video interview with Shahram Mokri about his career and the making of ASHKAN, FISH & CAT, INVASION and CARELESS CRIME (225 min. total, in Persian with English subtitles)
* Behind-the-scenes footage of CARELESS CRIME with new commentary by Shahram Mokri (23 min., in Persian with English subtitles)
* New English translation of essay by author Mohammed Vahdani (originally published in “24” magazine)
*Detailed map of the dramatic action in FISH & CAT (originally published in “24” magazine)
Following the Blu-ray release, Deaf Crocodile will release all four features on digital.
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