Restoration of Classic Iranian Films
The IHF has launched a major initiative to restore classic Iranian films in partnership with Cineteca di Bologna, one of the world’s leading film archives and restoration laboratories, internationally recognised for its work in preserving and promoting global film heritage. Cineteca di Bologna has committed matched funding in support of this programme.
The importance of this work is underscored by the fact that internationally renowned filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and George Lucas have also supported the restoration of classic Iranian cinema, recognising its cultural and historical significance.
IHF’s first restoration project is Secrets of the Jinn Valley Treasure (1974), directed by Ebrahim Golestan and starring Parviz Sayyad and Mary Apick. The premiere of the restored film will be screened at the Barbican Centre, London, as part of its Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave series in February 2026. The IHF has been formally accredited by the Barbican as a partner and supporter for the entire season, reflecting the Foundation’s significant role in this programme.
Many classic Iranian films are not housed in a single archive but are dispersed across film repositories worldwide. As celluloid materials, they are subject to rapid physical deterioration. Without timely intervention, a significant number of these works are likely to deteriorate beyond salvage within the next five to ten years, making immediate action both urgent and essential.
About the Barbican Centre’s Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave programme – February 2026
Following the Barbican Centre’s sell-out programme Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave in February 2025 – itself based on the largest and most successful retrospective of Iranian pre-revolutionary cinema at MoMA in New York, both curated by Ehsan Khoshbakht – the Iran Heritage Foundation has teamed up with the Barbican to present an even richer array of rare cinematic gems, many of them never before seen in the UK.
Featuring numerous new restorations, this expanded foray into the classics of Iranian cinema that first brought worldwide admiration to the nation’s film culture will include the world premiere of the newly restored director’s-cut version of Ebrahim Golestan’s satirical film Secrets of the Jinn Valley Treasure. Starring Parviz Sayyad, Mary Apick, and Shahnaz Tehrani, this long-unseen version has been restored by Cineteca di Bologna in partnership with the Iran Heritage Foundation.
The programme also includes three other short films by Ebrahim Golestan, among them The Hills of Marlik, which documents 3,000-year-old artefacts discovered during an archaeological excavation in northern Iran, and A Fire, a dazzling account of the extinguishing of an oil-well blaze in Ahvaz, masterfully edited by Forough Farrokhzad. Farrokhzad also appears – in her only acting role – in Golestan’s third short in the programme, Courtship (Khastegari).
Another highlight is the late Dariush Mehrjui’s international hit Postchi, which will be screened for the first time in the UK in a brand-new restoration courtesy of Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation and Cineteca di Bologna.
Further highlights include Bahram Beyzaie’s Ballad of Tara, featuring Susan Taslimi in one of her greatest performances, and Masoud Kimiai’s cult classic The Deer (Gavaznha), with Behrouz Vosoughi in his most memorable screen role. The Deer will be screened with both the censor-imposed ending and the original ending.
Among the major stars of pre-revolutionary Iranian cinema, Forouzan and Nasser Malek-Motie shine in Dancer of the City, one of the finest examples of Iranian popular cinema. From Shahla Riahi – the first woman director in Iranian cinema – the only surviving fragment of her 1956 film Marjan will be screened. Riahi also appears in the work of the master of Iranian comedy, Nosrat Karimi, in The Carriage Driver.
While the selection features a long list of remarkable filmmakers, including Abbas Kiarostami and Kamran Shirdel, the films collectively reveal an extraordinary stylistic and tonal range: from heavily allegorical dramas to satirical comedies, and from poetic documentaries to militant crime films.
