Rhino Season

Poetic film that is as much a political indictment as it is an epic love tragedy. The Iranian-Kurdish poet Sahel and his wife Mina were wrongly arrested during the Islamic revolution in Iran. Visually stunning and a cinematographic experience, with Monica Bellucci playing the lead.

The victim of a personal vendetta, Sahel (Behrouz Vossoughi) is thrown into prison along with his devoted wife Mina (Monica Bellucci) during the Islamic revolution in Iran. Suddenly released after ten years, Mina is informed by the authorities that Sahel is dead. Heartbroken, she and her two children leave Iran for Istanbul — unknowingly leaving behind her very-much-alive husband, who is forced to stay in prison for another twenty years. Finally released, Sahel sets out to find his wife, the memory of whom was the only thing that had sustained him throughout his agonizing ordeal.

The Iranian-Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi (Turtles Can Fly) based Rhino Season on the diaries of his friend, the Kurdish poet Sadeh Kamangar.

In 2010 Ghobadi’s film No One Knows About Persian Cats was the opening film at the Movies that Matter Festival. The festival honoured the filmmaker with the Lifetime Achievement Award