Skip to main content

RAI FILM Festival takes place on 27-30 March 2025. Learn more.

Search our film database
2021

VHS Diaries

Directed by Niyaz Saghari

2020 – 72'

Synopsis

The filmmaker revisits the diaries she kept during the years when video was banned in Iran. Using her personal VHS archive of films as a point of reference, the film explores a very personal film history with audio interviews with film historians, film buffs and those involved in the film black market. This is the story of an underground subculture of cinephiles hiding amongst the first Iranian post-revolution generation, who pursued their love for cinema despite strict government restrictions and the threat of imprisonment.

View film website

RAI FILM Festival 2025

The next RAI FILM Festival will take place in person from 27-30 March 2025 at the Watershed Cinema and the Arnolfini International Centre for Contemporary Arts in Bristol (UK) and online throughout the month of April 2025.