Between Dreams and Hope / The Great Yawn of History

Screening Between Dreams and Hope / The Great Yawn of History June 7, 2026 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm Billy Wilder Theater More Details More Details 2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema Visit the UCLA Film & Television Archive website (opens in a new tab) to learn more about upcoming screenings and events. REGISTER FOR THIS SCREENING (opens in a new tab) Please note: Registration does not guarantee does not guarantee entry if the event reaches capacity. Admission is granted on a first come, first served basis. Patrons who have registered will need to obtain their free tickets at the box office, where seating will be assigned. Any seats remaining 15 minutes before showtime will be released to standby patrons. Screening 1 of 3 Son Year: 2024 Country: Iran Language: Kurdish with English Subtitles Runtime: 15 min. Digital. Color. Farhang Short Film Festival Audience Choice Award winner In a village in remote Iranian Kurdistan, an old mother waits for her son to return from military service. When he doesn’t arrive as expected, she sets out to find him only to discover a truth about his identity that will change their lives forever. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Saman Hosseinpuor. With: Maryam Boubani, Kurosh Ahmadi, Kianoosh Farzin. Screening 2 of 3 Between Dreams and Hope Year: 2025 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English Subtitles Runtime: 106 min. Digital. Color. A frequent collaborator with filmmaker Ali Asgari, writer-director Farnoosh Samadi centers the inequity and injustices faced by Iranian women in much of her work. In her second feature behind the camera, Samadi expands her frame to include Azad (Fereshteh Hosseini) , a trans man, longing to start his life with his lover Nora (Sadaf Asgari) , but who must confront his estranged father before he can. Hosseini and Asgar (another Asgari film regular) deliver deeply affecting performances in a story that is by turns tender and harrowing about the power of love over hate. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Farnoosh Samadi. With: Fereshteh Hosseini, Sadaf Asgari, Hooman Rahnemoon. Screening 3 of 3 The Great Yawn of History Year: 2024 Country: Iran Language: Persian with English Subtitles Runtime: 93 min Digital. Color. Part adventure story, part mystical allegory, director Aliyar Rasti’s The Great Yawn of History begins with an eccentric job interview. Beitollah (Mohammad Aghebati) drops dollar bills with his contact information around the city, then interviews anyone who calls about their belief system. Answering that he believes in nothing, Shoja (Amirhossein Hosseini) gets the gig: following Beitollah deep into the Iranian desert to find a box of gold coins he saw in a vision. Rasti’s debut feature won the Special Jury Award in the Encounters section of the Berlin International Film Festival for its exploration of faith and greed set against the hardscrabble landscapes of a depopulated rural Iran. DCP. Director/Screenwriter: Aliyar Rasti. With: Mohammad Aghebati, Amirhossein Hosseini, Saber Abar. Related Series Jun 05 EVENT SERIES 2026 UCLA Celebration of Iranian Cinema June 5, 2026 - June 21, 2026 The UCLA Film & Television Archive continues its long tradition of bringing the best cinema from Iran and the Iranian diaspora to Los Angeles