Certified Copy: Kiarostami and the Real Thing

FLATLAND IS A 19TH CENTURY inter-dimensional head-trip, still popular with math and computer geeks, a fantasy of a two-dimensional being whose mind is blown by his encounters with other dimensions.  (Among other things, he discovers that the elite of his own world knew about the existence of a third-dimension, but hid that knowledge from the masses.)  The novel was a favorite of C. S. Lewis, who used it to communicate paradoxes of art and spirituality.  The Trinity, for example,... Read More

The Anxious Eye of the Revolution: Iranian Filmmaker Speaks Out for “Defeated” Opposition Candidate

This weekend’s Iranian presidential election was declared a victory for the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and has provoked accusations of fraud and riots in the street; the story is still unfolding, tweet by tweet.  Until the dust clears, we can’t know whether it’s been kicked up by something more or less than a revolution or a coup.  Or whether on this anniversary of 1989′s events in Eastern Europe and China, the world can hope to see astonishing political... Read More