In 1951, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company set out to produce a publicity film promoting its activities in Iran, hiring none other than Dylan Thomas to write it.
The documentary combines colonial archival photographs with the poet’s lyrical, often acerbic reflections (voiced by actor Michael Sheen) on oil, modernisation and imperialism as he journeys through a country on the cusp of political upheaval.
+ A FIRE (YEK AKTASH)
Director: Ebrahim Golestan
Iran, 1961, 25 minutes, Farsi + English subtitles.
Golestan’s colour film of a 1958 oil well fire in southwest Iran offers a folkloric narrative of the conflagration. Edited by poet and filmmaker Forough Farrokhzad (The House Is Black), it’s a poetic celebration of collective work by ordinary people whose lives are interwoven with the disaster.
