Ehsan Khoshbakht / Uk, Iran / 80′ / 2023

Celluloid Underground is an autobiographical feature-length documentary by Iranian filmmaker, writer and curator Ehsan Khoshbakht, about his experience of growing up in Iran after the 1979 revolution, when his love of cinema became the catalyst for his rebellion against the Islamic regime.
It’s the story of his friendship with the mysterious Ahmad, a maverick film collector who hid thousands of banned 35mm prints and posters in basements in downtown Tehran, to save them from the fundamentalist fanatics. Born just after the revolution, Ehsan grew up obsessed with all the movies he wasn’t allowed to see. He became Ahmad’s closest collaborator in the underground cinematheque, before escaping to a new life in London.
In Celluloid Underground, Ehsan celebrates the power of cinema to resist tyranny, and the unsung heroism of the friend who changed his life. From the pain of his exile, he questions whether their shared obsession was worth the price they each paid for it.

Directed by Ehsan Khoshbakht
Produced by Mary Bell, Adam Dawtrey
Executive producers Mark Thomas, Sandra Whipham
Editing by Niyaz Saghari
Editor assistance di Abolfazl Talooni
Sound Design & Re-recording mixer di Rob Szeliga
Music by Ekkehard Wölk
Cinematography Garance Javelle
Camera Majed Neisi, Niyaz Saghari, Andrew Panatti
Video diaries and interviews with Ahmad Jorghanian, Ehsan Khoshbakht
With the partecipation of Jonah Sellers, Nariman Massoumi, Phil Clark
With Hamid-Reza Sadr, Simin Shahidi, Mehdi Shalchi
Color by Giandomenico Zeppa
Master by Marco Rossi, Mario Rettura, Elena Taylor, Silvia De Pasquale
Other music by Kristoff Becker, Andrea Marcelli
Music played by Kristoff Becker (Cello), Andrea Marcelli (Drumes, clarinet and percussions), Ekkehard Wölk (Piano)

Ehsan Khoshbakht
is an Iranian filmmaker, curator and author, based in London. His debut feature Filmfarsi (2019), about the lost Iranian popular cinema of the Shah’s era, was screened at over 40 film festivals and cinematheques around the world. He has also made several documentaries for BBC World Service, including Duke Ellington in Isfahan, which was selected for Telluride 2021.
Ehsan is co-director of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, the world’s premier festival for film history and restoration. He regularly programmes seasons around the world, most recently at MoMA in New York, Cinémathèque Française in Paris, Cinemateca Portuguesa in Lisbon, the Viennale in Vienna, Cinemateket in Copenhagen, and Filmoteca Catalunya in Barcelona. .
He is the author and editor of several books about cinema.