DOWNPOUR Persian Film Fest Screening
Tuesday 27. January at 20:00 - 22:00
FOMO Secret Cinema, Tbilisi
Proudly presented as the finale of our extended Persian Film Fest at FOMO Secret Cinema.
Bahram Beyzaie | 1972 | Iran | 130 minutes | original Persian audio with English subtitles
DOWNPOUR centres on a young, idealistic schoolteacher who arrives in a poor urban neighborhood and attempts to make a difference in a community shaped by suspicion, gossip, and social control. His kindness toward students and quiet independence mark him as an outsider. As rumors spread and hostility builds, he becomes further and further isolated before he's eventually ostracised and pushed out by the very people he hoped to serve.
Beyzaie uses the figure of the teacher to examine how moral authority is treated as a threat in tightly controlled environments. The story avoids dramatic confrontation, focusing instead on accumulation. Small acts of exclusion gradually become decisive.
Beyzaie faced systematic censorship and obstruction after the 1979 Revolution. Many of his scripts have been banned or never allowed to be filmed. This particular film belongs to the first wave of the Persian New Wave. It was heavily censored on release and then disappeared for decades due to censorship and political discomfort. It has since been restored, and today is regarded as one of the most important early Iranian films.
DOWNPOUR's themes of conformity, quiet resistance, and social punishment remain deeply relevant. The film shows how communities enforce order not through violence, but through group-think, exclusion and the policing of dangerous social mores.
Location: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro
How to find FOMO: Enter the Bazari via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left behind the jewellery stand. One flight up. Video instructions here
FOMO Secret Cinema • Bazari Orbeliani, 0102 Tbilisi, Georgia
