https://elhame.co Elham Ehsas Fri, 10 Jul 2026 11:42:11 +0000 https://elhame.co en https://elhame.co/Home Wed, 02 Nov 2022 22:37:47 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/Home <img width="527" height="800" width_o="527" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c790918332baca7fd427f83395b6b36fd7efa0b242df439ebe7f39316a4610e3/spaceman.png" data-mid="249876039" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/527/i/c790918332baca7fd427f83395b6b36fd7efa0b242df439ebe7f39316a4610e3/spaceman.png" /> <img width="527" height="800" width_o="527" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/dbc3e943130b7b89a01adbf9dfb35253d17bf789da298a5c8f4122983d8e7a86/web-copy.png" data-mid="205003061" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/527/i/dbc3e943130b7b89a01adbf9dfb35253d17bf789da298a5c8f4122983d8e7a86/web-copy.png" /> <img width="527" height="800" width_o="527" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c762529c64645cc4a15c1511a2e2b69369939d10afd89e45e955e07d796b8b12/Yellow_poster.png" data-mid="222244999" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/527/i/c762529c64645cc4a15c1511a2e2b69369939d10afd89e45e955e07d796b8b12/Yellow_poster.png" /> <img width="527" height="800" width_o="527" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/576c7ff57b79558a33f3fc84d511caa72b8e9d1aba0442c6c97e96a89fe0b45e/OKOL-poster.png" data-mid="157817429" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/527/i/576c7ff57b79558a33f3fc84d511caa72b8e9d1aba0442c6c97e96a89fe0b45e/OKOL-poster.png" /> .cn { display: flex; flex-direction: column; gap: 9px; } .cn-label { font-size: 15px; color: #aaa; } .cn-item { display: flex; flex-direction: column; gap: 3px; } .cn-item a { text-decoration: none; display: flex; flex-direction: column; gap: 3px; } .cn-item a:hover .cn-hl { color: #0ca900; } .cn-hl { font-size: 12px; color: #555; line-height: 1.45; transition: color 0.15s; } .cn-meta { font-size: 9.5px; color: #c0392b; letter-spacing: 0.04em; text-transform: uppercase; } https://elhame.co/SoftRains Mon, 19 Feb 2024 22:26:54 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/SoftRains There Will Come Soft Rains Winner of Best Film - Raindance Film Festival <img width="1280" height="720" width_o="1280" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0aedc6d8b441f139e7d200d4ef7175e3da622c6b62655e7a8957a696af5e6674/3.png" data-mid="240138876" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0aedc6d8b441f139e7d200d4ef7175e3da622c6b62655e7a8957a696af5e6674/3.png" /> <img width="1280" height="720" width_o="1280" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a9477f4e87ef181f8e37bba25e531a8efd4de670c90aa8692dc2942edb1b1b79/1.png" data-mid="240138873" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a9477f4e87ef181f8e37bba25e531a8efd4de670c90aa8692dc2942edb1b1b79/1.png" /> <img width="1280" height="720" width_o="1280" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d31a4273f2c27cfdf0b9bad0694f3e250a68f35ae9fdb04417745364a7a1b3c4/2.png" data-mid="240138874" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d31a4273f2c27cfdf0b9bad0694f3e250a68f35ae9fdb04417745364a7a1b3c4/2.png" /> 14 mins 47 • UK • 2025 • Digital • Drama SYNOPSIS A daughter digs up her father’s grave to move him to higher ground.&nbsp; WATCH HERE TRAILER FESTIVALS REVIEWS STILLS BTS DIRECTOR NOTE POSTER <img width="299" height="80" width_o="299" height_o="80" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5e2eb8ca052289582afc6c68d274b6b9e597dcb725ba6f56cff6ff0589f07288/BFI-PLAYER-BUTTON.png" data-mid="250205345" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/299/i/5e2eb8ca052289582afc6c68d274b6b9e597dcb725ba6f56cff6ff0589f07288/BFI-PLAYER-BUTTON.png" /> <img width="3383" height="2103" width_o="3383" height_o="2103" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ebec9ac9e2074cfcb3c55f8d9d798173c740f55be663420435962d7e48b5f96b/WINNER_LAUREL_BLACK.png" data-mid="250399502" border="0" data-scale="99" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ebec9ac9e2074cfcb3c55f8d9d798173c740f55be663420435962d7e48b5f96b/WINNER_LAUREL_BLACK.png" /> <img width="1362" height="602" width_o="1362" height_o="602" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cfe04ed9852b481d361ee3709a63031d024028d40e4e2979abe162b109c698c4/ENC25_Laurel_Black.png" data-mid="250399504" border="0" data-scale="100" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cfe04ed9852b481d361ee3709a63031d024028d40e4e2979abe162b109c698c4/ENC25_Laurel_Black.png" /> <img width="750" height="466" width_o="750" height_o="466" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9f9199f4fe6be8f82cd00e63997ddf931a9e709930567c1103515e4e4c63713a/Hollyshorts-Laurel.png" data-mid="250399505" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/750/i/9f9199f4fe6be8f82cd00e63997ddf931a9e709930567c1103515e4e4c63713a/Hollyshorts-Laurel.png" /> <img width="512" height="354" width_o="512" height_o="354" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/715dcdd66c5f09b11bdb8a95a97c8330a8f2920f5bc010caec9fd7ea522dc6d9/Aswan-Laurel.png" data-mid="250399506" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/512/i/715dcdd66c5f09b11bdb8a95a97c8330a8f2920f5bc010caec9fd7ea522dc6d9/Aswan-Laurel.png" /> https://elhame.co/Voices Thu, 03 Nov 2022 13:41:11 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/Voices Voices &nbsp;Writer &amp; Director: Elham EhsasLength: 5 mins 10 secondsGenre: DramaCountry: UKYear: 2021 A man’s life unravels entirely through his voicemails. Made during the Covid quarantine of 2021.&nbsp; Posters <img width="537" height="800" width_o="537" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/92c76ac6a3612dd4a178229ce5e58fe1e2bf718458c28adea4d14dae5713f724/voices-poster.png" data-mid="157812061" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/537/i/92c76ac6a3612dd4a178229ce5e58fe1e2bf718458c28adea4d14dae5713f724/voices-poster.png" /> <img width="1944" height="2880" width_o="1944" height_o="2880" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4343690ef3a1c78eb06605beb0a6ddb44ee6b44bc7f644e8199109891c31eba9/voices_72dpi.jpg" data-mid="182701291" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4343690ef3a1c78eb06605beb0a6ddb44ee6b44bc7f644e8199109891c31eba9/voices_72dpi.jpg" /> https://elhame.co/Humming-Bird Thu, 03 Nov 2022 13:27:58 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/Humming-Bird Humming Bird &nbsp;Writer &amp; Director: Elham EhsasLength: 7 minsGenre: DramaCountry: UKYear: 2019 The life of a young actor unravels through her self tapes. Shot entirey on iPhone.&nbsp; Gallery <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/29434a4beecafd72f4144dacaec3a86c805b43b668d2e5a75dd933456e200675/h2.png" data-mid="157811502" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/29434a4beecafd72f4144dacaec3a86c805b43b668d2e5a75dd933456e200675/h2.png" /> <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/abf4a66fcb74c176cc2e47ec30e6f9326c11ba2167fac7aa19f9ff326c3f95fb/h7.png" data-mid="157811505" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/abf4a66fcb74c176cc2e47ec30e6f9326c11ba2167fac7aa19f9ff326c3f95fb/h7.png" /> <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e0b934251df7e63ad79ce5828fcfe4cac05eca7175a9895b462a5edfd034e815/h5.png" data-mid="157811504" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e0b934251df7e63ad79ce5828fcfe4cac05eca7175a9895b462a5edfd034e815/h5.png" /> <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e10625c4964d2ded55b1805c0d35d441ac94210dbe4c8b3a1ce17038b0ff70ac/h9.png" data-mid="157811507" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e10625c4964d2ded55b1805c0d35d441ac94210dbe4c8b3a1ce17038b0ff70ac/h9.png" /> <img width="533" height="800" width_o="533" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1f7633d7d7d43a7e372441f85e43d2936cc6c59022225adea6257f83197bc69c/h8.png" data-mid="157811506" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/533/i/1f7633d7d7d43a7e372441f85e43d2936cc6c59022225adea6257f83197bc69c/h8.png" /> Poster <img width="537" height="800" width_o="537" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/45c8607455910dd813a4d0aaa268de2099952c4a467aed2d2bf8990b2d07879a/hummingbird_poster.png" data-mid="157811508" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/537/i/45c8607455910dd813a4d0aaa268de2099952c4a467aed2d2bf8990b2d07879a/hummingbird_poster.png" /> https://elhame.co/The-Postman Thu, 03 Nov 2022 11:14:56 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/The-Postman The Postman &nbsp;Writer &amp; Director: Elham EhsasLength: 8 mins 40 seconds&nbsp;Genre: Drama Country: UKYear: 2019 A postman in Kabul pens a letter to a lost love. Trailer Gallery <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/9619671c02d2fe687f04a2af1d29319d33e0bba4001f3047afa8299ee0932363/3.png" data-mid="157797912" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/9619671c02d2fe687f04a2af1d29319d33e0bba4001f3047afa8299ee0932363/3.png" /> <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e381df1d1f042e269aa3c6e60d62bb0509e768de922552b5683549b2683bd1c7/9.png" data-mid="157797914" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e381df1d1f042e269aa3c6e60d62bb0509e768de922552b5683549b2683bd1c7/9.png" /> <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ce0d46c34d142a70c34b38cb5791aa45d9001f4d972fbfeec32d15935b3ead74/10.png" data-mid="157797915" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ce0d46c34d142a70c34b38cb5791aa45d9001f4d972fbfeec32d15935b3ead74/10.png" /> <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/43f5af47d05b3420d6e436173451afd871e680212dba9e09cfe30b6d73047b7e/2.png" data-mid="157797888" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/43f5af47d05b3420d6e436173451afd871e680212dba9e09cfe30b6d73047b7e/2.png" /> <img width="1100" height="761" width_o="1100" height_o="761" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d063161459fb4fa27714f81489221385c5fc8f20d541bdcd9ef593eb1438cdea/7.png" data-mid="157801977" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d063161459fb4fa27714f81489221385c5fc8f20d541bdcd9ef593eb1438cdea/7.png" /> <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c9ecc0068e5e8e1fe9e639740342cc6b43d1302b8bb29f3f1364c71dafa2b037/5.png" data-mid="157797913" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c9ecc0068e5e8e1fe9e639740342cc6b43d1302b8bb29f3f1364c71dafa2b037/5.png" /> <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/912e4e7972ea7b3d8104176026d399bf2ec2ecf89ebf3599ebc1b7088023d674/6.png" data-mid="157801976" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/912e4e7972ea7b3d8104176026d399bf2ec2ecf89ebf3599ebc1b7088023d674/6.png" /> <img width="1100" height="733" width_o="1100" height_o="733" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/0c5eb2297e8362e56a76a6c8dbbfb4feac2e2cb0a0fa151753b35782f0b670fa/8.png" data-mid="157801978" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/0c5eb2297e8362e56a76a6c8dbbfb4feac2e2cb0a0fa151753b35782f0b670fa/8.png" /> Poster <img width="527" height="800" width_o="527" height_o="800" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/19c92d8a91b34d51ab3c8b099e625987eb8164111e30c2c6a1bf6f7db9292125/1.png" data-mid="157797916" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/527/i/19c92d8a91b34d51ab3c8b099e625987eb8164111e30c2c6a1bf6f7db9292125/1.png" /> https://elhame.co/TV-The-Crown Thu, 03 Nov 2022 10:48:07 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/TV-The-Crown <img width="1920" height="1080" width_o="1920" height_o="1080" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d19022ccaffc045c2af3d9d0357dde29164a4aa8e545d61197b2286e555a906f/___1.34.6.jpg" data-mid="175280785" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d19022ccaffc045c2af3d9d0357dde29164a4aa8e545d61197b2286e555a906f/___1.34.6.jpg" /> The Crown - Netflix &nbsp;Series: Season 6 - Ep 10 Role: Directed B-Unit Camera &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Assisted Stephen Daldry on A-Unit Had the privilege of directing the Splinter Unit (B-unit Camera) and assisting Stephen Daldry on the final episode of season 6 of the hit Netflix series, The Crown. This was an incredible opportunity to work alongside one of the most talented directors in the industry and to contribute to the stunning visual storytelling that has made The Crown such a beloved series.&nbsp; https://elhame.co/The-Goalkeeper-s-Guide-to-Absurdism Fri, 10 Jul 2026 11:42:11 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/The-Goalkeeper-s-Guide-to-Absurdism The Goalkeeper’s Guide to Absurdism <img width="1000" height="681" width_o="1000" height_o="681" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d6d2a9c37095c77216ea29c69dbb5a9a8d3d8b5761a688a395e2f5682cdbf2cf/goalie.jpeg" data-mid="250294969" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d6d2a9c37095c77216ea29c69dbb5a9a8d3d8b5761a688a395e2f5682cdbf2cf/goalie.jpeg" /> I have a complicated relationship with football. I like it best in short, intense bursts &nbsp;like a World Cup every four years and then I forget about it almost entirely until the next one.So it took a radio drama about Albert Camus playing goalkeeper to remind me why the sport is indeed the most beautiful of sports in the world. Last week I listened to a BBC Radio 4 program called Goalkeeper's Guide to Absurdism, about Albert Camus, who was a goalkeeper for the Racing Universitaire d'Alger junior side before tuberculosis ended his playing days at seventeen. Camus later said that what he knew most surely about morality and the duty of man, he learnt from football. After listenting to this radio drama, I can see why. A goalkeeper occupies a strange position in the metaphysics of a football match, most of the game is happening far away from you, out of your control, and your job is to stand there in the mud and wait, fully alert, for the one moment when it all comes crashing toward you and you have about half a second to decide what kind of person you're going to be. That's a great chamber for learning about the makings of a moral life. Most of it is waiting. The tests are sudden and short and you don't get a second chance at it. This is also, not coincidentally, more or less the whole argument of The Myth of Sisyphus. The universe doesn't owe you a reason. The ball doesn't owe you a save. &nbsp;Camus decided the response to a universe with no inherent meaning was not despair but effort in showing up, again, for the next cross into the box and the next attempt to make a change in the tiny spark that is your life. I bring all this up because the World Cup is on right now, and my love for football has reignited again, and I feel like I am on a new change in my life. I never used to care for the sports, but I can see the beauty and philosophy in it. So this World Cup, when I see Messi running towards the opposition’s goalie, I will be there with that goalkeeper and see him and feel for him a little more than I used to. He is, whether he knows it or not, living out a piece of philosophy that a sick young Algerian understood. The rock rolls back down. You walk down the hill after it. You can listen to the whole episode below. Fri 10 July ‘26 https://elhame.co/Remembering-the-Forgotten-Spaceman Sun, 21 Jun 2026 17:21:50 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/Remembering-the-Forgotten-Spaceman Remembering the Forgotten Spaceman&nbsp; <img width="1200" height="675" width_o="1200" height_o="675" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/8325d741f948ba14b3378367bdee3c6187787a9c927ae775856534c206c00d70/p0289462.jpg" data-mid="249677235" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/8325d741f948ba14b3378367bdee3c6187787a9c927ae775856534c206c00d70/p0289462.jpg" /> Since the dawn of our existence, humans have always looked up.&nbsp; For thousands of years, we looked at the stars and imagined myths and stories and wonders all taking shape in that dark abyss above us. Then, one day we built machines powerful enough to leave the Earth behind to see those stars and a young man from Afghanistan became one of the people who carried our questions into the darkness above. Abdul Ahad Momand, the first Afghan astronaut, has died at the age of 67. His story sounds made up when you hear it, no one knows about the Afghan who went to space, but then you have to remember that history is full of people who did extraordinary things and then returned to very ordinary lives. Most of them were often remembered and celebrated, but our spaceman has been almost lost to time and history.&nbsp; In 1988, at the age of 29, Momand travelled into space as part of a joint Soviet mission to the Mir space station. He spent around nine days orbiting the Earth becoming not only the first person from Afghanistan to go to space, but also a symbol of what was possible for a country that was plagued with decades of war.&nbsp; While aboard Mir, Momand photographed parts of Afghanistan from above, contributing to studies of geology, water resources, minerals and earthquakes. He looked down at the country that had shaped him, and we looked up at one of our own, among the stars. From space, he also sent a message calling for peace in Afghanistan, a reminder that even while floating hundreds of kilometres above the Earth he remained connected to the struggles and hopes of the people below. He carried a copy of the Qur’an, the first Muslim to take it into space.When he called his mum from up there, Pashto became the fourth language ever spoken among the stars.&nbsp; When Momand returned, Afghanistan celebrated him as a national hero. The political changes and conflicts that followed forced him to leave his homeland in 1992. He spent the rest of his life in Germany, living in exile and unable to permanently return home. There is a sadnes in the thought that a man who travelled farther from Earth than any other Afghan ever had, could not find a way back to the place he loved. I made a film called Forgotten Spaceman because I felt that Momand’s story deserved to be remembered and to bring the story of our spaceman to those who don’t know it, a shining jewel in the history of my country.&nbsp; May our Spaceman rest among the stars he once visited.Inna Lillahe wa Inna Illahe Raji’oon. <img width="1199" height="674" width_o="1199" height_o="674" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cf683bfde3b76a53cc9da430ed5dda3db0fe2f84f3422c6db61d92263c18e575/58752769_605.jpg" data-mid="249677286" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cf683bfde3b76a53cc9da430ed5dda3db0fe2f84f3422c6db61d92263c18e575/58752769_605.jpg" /> Sun 21 June, ‘26 https://elhame.co/A-whole-civilisation-will-die-tonight Fri, 10 Apr 2026 18:20:59 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/A-whole-civilisation-will-die-tonight A whole civilisation will die tonight. Trump’s threat to Iran. <img width="736" height="552" width_o="736" height_o="552" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c1a7a604ce808cc9171292b9262dd3b993012abe277d0435699a8252a4f3c2c7/5a990dac246f13a744f85cc5f5ba047c.jpg" data-mid="247054277" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/736/i/c1a7a604ce808cc9171292b9262dd3b993012abe277d0435699a8252a4f3c2c7/5a990dac246f13a744f85cc5f5ba047c.jpg" /> Recently, the President of the United States posted tha “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.” He meant it as a threat buut I keep reading it as an accidental elegy for something I love. There is an iranian film called Taste of Cherry. It was made in 1997 by Abbas Kiarostami, and it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and for years I avoided it because someone told me it was about a man driving around Tehran trying to find someone willing to help him commit suicide.&nbsp; A man drives around the outskirts of Tehran asking strangers if they will bury him. That is the whole plot. And it is, somehow, the most radical argument for being alive I have ever encountered. a film about death was so impossibly, stubbornly full of life. <img width="1200" height="675" width_o="1200" height_o="675" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/a14def93c37c182dc71bae943714bc49a5fbf1f6010f790cfb34a467b4fa351c/5f99bdc09ebf2f66eb0ff0b6242b0be7.jpg" data-mid="247054278" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/a14def93c37c182dc71bae943714bc49a5fbf1f6010f790cfb34a467b4fa351c/5f99bdc09ebf2f66eb0ff0b6242b0be7.jpg" /> Here is what else Iranian cinema has given the world: Jafar Panahi, banned from filmmaking by his own government, responded by hiding a camera in his taxi and making Taxi anyway, a film that won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2015. He accepted the award via an empty chair. Asghar Farhadi gave us A Separation is about a marriage dissolving in Tehran, and it is also about class and faith and the impossible knot of moral obligation, and watching it I understood human beings slightly better than I had before. That is what great art is supposed to do. Making art under repression is a hard thought, and a harder task. These filmmakers had to say enormous things in small containers. Whole worlds hidden inside a glance or an audition room or a car going nowhere.&nbsp; <img width="1200" height="723" width_o="1200" height_o="723" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cabeb1b1b4205124d2812cea5ce1697f5118cf6ac6d5c883d592e737d9e53852/eb7ac1fef6ae24c2f02190f9cb157b37.jpg" data-mid="247054280" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cabeb1b1b4205124d2812cea5ce1697f5118cf6ac6d5c883d592e737d9e53852/eb7ac1fef6ae24c2f02190f9cb157b37.jpg" /> Kiarostami said a film should be like a rug with gaps in the weave, so the viewer can press their imagination through the holes. That is a philosophy of cinema. It is also, I think, a philosophy of survival. Civilisations are not their governments. The people of Iran are not the Islamic Republic any more than the people of America are any particular president. A civilisation is the things people make when they’re trying to understand what it is to be alive. It is the films you hide cameras inside taxis to make. It is the art that outlasts the power that tried to stop it. Kiarostami died in 2016 but his films did not. A whole civilisation will live on tonight. Fri 10 April, 26 https://elhame.co/Perfect-Strangers-perfect-television Mon, 06 Apr 2026 09:58:13 +0000 Elham Ehsas https://elhame.co/Perfect-Strangers-perfect-television Perfect Strangers,perfect television <img width="1280" height="720" width_o="1280" height_o="720" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/c86a36c2207e911445bf1269a4f00630c27ec67d2b83f4b74711d4a584ef4cbc/maxresdefault.jpg" data-mid="246923715" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/c86a36c2207e911445bf1269a4f00630c27ec67d2b83f4b74711d4a584ef4cbc/maxresdefault.jpg" /> So I want to tell you about this BBC miniseries from 2001 that I genuinely cannot stop thinking about, and I realise that sentence already sounds like the beginning of a recommendation you didn't ask for but please stay with me because this will change your life.&nbsp; Perfect Strangers. Stephen Poliakoff. Four episodes. Made at a time when the BBC would occasionally look at a filmmaker they believed in and essentially say, go. Just go. Here is money and here is time and we trust you, go and make something that will leave a mark. Go. Poliakoff shoots close-ups the way some people are afraid to make eye contact which is to say he isn't afraid at all, he goes right in, he stays there and he waits. And the faces reward him. Every time. Because it turns out the human face, given enough time and enough trust will do something true and devastating.&nbsp; The score doesn't tell you how to feel. It just arrives. Before the emotion does.&nbsp;The acting is the kind where you forget there's a camera. You forget there's a script. You forget you're watching television at all and then suddenly you remember, because something has happened in your chest that television doesn't usually do. But there is this one scene.&nbsp; Three sisters. Old. Watching photographs of themselves young. And already that's a beautiful scene, just sit with that for a second. The specific cruelty and beauty of looking at a photograph of yourself from fifty years ago. That person had no idea. She was just standing there. She didn't know yet. And just before we cut away, one of the sisters, her back to us and we can't see her face, reaches up and touches her cheek. Gently. Just once. <img width="640" height="360" width_o="640" height_o="360" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/139a70897b104bc9c7bad6789e8801e669acff78805a3a6a0bb5c66e3b6920f1/Perfect-Strangers---Advert-_-Commercial-April-2001-BBC-Two-VHS-Rip.mp4.00_00_22_16.Still001.png" data-mid="246883290" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/139a70897b104bc9c7bad6789e8801e669acff78805a3a6a0bb5c66e3b6920f1/Perfect-Strangers---Advert-_-Commercial-April-2001-BBC-Two-VHS-Rip.mp4.00_00_22_16.Still001.png" /> Poliakoff doesn't linger on it. He just lets it happen, and then we're somewhere else, and you're left sitting there holding this thing you've just witnessed, this completely wordless and completely devastating acknowledgment of time, of age, of the body that keeps changing while the photographs stay still. That gesture exists because nobody told him he needed a close-up of it. Nobody made him shoot a version where we could see her face. He trusted the back of a woman's head as her hand lingers to her cheek, to break your heart and it does, it absolutely does. This is what television looks like when the people making it are allowed to be serious about it. When the assumption is that you, the person watching, are a full human being with a full interior life who does not need every emotion explained and underlined and reflected back at you by a musical sting. Perfect Strangers assumes you've felt things and that you know what it is to stand in a room full of family and feel the enormous distance between you and people you've known your whole life, or maybe haven’t. It assumes you understand that memory isn't clean, isn't linear, arrives sideways and smells like something and sits in the light differently than the present does. So if you haven't seen it, and most people haven't, which is its own kind of sadness, I'm not going to oversell it or over-explain it because Poliakoff spent four episodes refusing to do exactly. Just find it. Go. Just go. <img width="1200" height="675" width_o="1200" height_o="675" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d57baa2bb6f97859d74cf6ec328a2ae3698c3d7092ff2ee66d27a949e1853d0a/p07jxqrk.jpg" data-mid="246923717" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/d57baa2bb6f97859d74cf6ec328a2ae3698c3d7092ff2ee66d27a949e1853d0a/p07jxqrk.jpg" /> Mon 6 April, 26