19 November – 12 December 2026
Lost, Banned, Reclaimed brings together four films that were forgotten, lost or suppressed: Iranian, Armenian, Egyptian and Kazakh, each a radical aesthetic anomaly, each lost in the cracks of history or banned, and each eventually restored and brought to international audiences. These are films that, in some sense, should not exist, or rather, films that history made little effort to preserve. Visually distinctive and rooted in the cultures of their regions, they show what can disappear when unique cinematic languages are interrupted or prevented from circulating.
From the aristocratic mansion of Mohammad Reza Aslani’s Chess of the Wind and the painterly imagery of Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates, to the monumental pharaonic world of Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Night of Counting the Years and the vast historical landscape of Ardak Amirkulov’s The Fall of Otrar, each film creates a distinctive cinematic world. Their survival, sometimes by accident and sometimes through stubborn human effort, allows audiences to encounter visual languages that history nearly erased.
By bringing these films together, the season proposes a parallel history of cinema: one shaped by interruption, suppression, disappearance, restoration and reclamation. It also asks what might have been possible had these films and visual languages been distributed freely and found their audiences sooner. At the core of the season is the belief that programming itself can be an act of preservation. Lost, Banned, Reclaimed brings these works back to the screen, where preservation becomes not only about the survival of a film, but also about its return to cultural memory.
Lost, Banned, Reclaimed brings together four films that were forgotten, lost or suppressed: Iranian, Armenian, Egyptian and Kazakh, each a radical aesthetic anomaly, each lost in the cracks of history or banned, and each eventually restored and brought to international audiences. These are films that, in some sense, should not exist, or rather, films that history made little effort to preserve. Visually distinctive and rooted in the cultures of their regions, they show what can disappear when unique cinematic languages are interrupted or prevented from circulating.
From the aristocratic mansion of Mohammad Reza Aslani’s Chess of the Wind and the painterly imagery of Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates, to the monumental pharaonic world of Shadi Abdel Salam’s The Night of Counting the Years and the vast historical landscape of Ardak Amirkulov’s The Fall of Otrar, each film creates a distinctive cinematic world. Their survival, sometimes by accident and sometimes through stubborn human effort, allows audiences to encounter visual languages that history nearly erased.
By bringing these films together, the season proposes a parallel history of cinema: one shaped by interruption, suppression, disappearance, restoration and reclamation. It also asks what might have been possible had these films and visual languages been distributed freely and found their audiences sooner. At the core of the season is the belief that programming itself can be an act of preservation. Lost, Banned, Reclaimed brings these works back to the screen, where preservation becomes not only about the survival of a film, but also about its return to cultural memory.
This programme is curated by Ali Lalfam in partnership with the National Film and Television School and the ICA.
Programme
Thursday 19 November, 8.40pm
Chess of the Wind + Q&A
Banned after the 1979 revolution and lost for decades, this Iranian New Wave masterpiece follows heirs consumed by greed, betrayal and violence as they fight to inherit a matriarch's estate. This screening will be introduced by Ali Lalfam, the season curator, followed by a short post-screening Q&A with Iranian filmmaker and actor Ali Mosaffa.
Sunday 22 November, 5pm
The Colour of Pomegranates + Introduction
Sergei Parajanov's avant-garde portrait of Armenian poet Sayat-Nova chronicles his life from youth through death, using framing and the poet's verse to create a distinct, symbolic and poetic work.
Wednesday 9 December, 8.40pm
The Night of Counting the Years + Introduction
Set in 1881, the film follows the Horabat, an Upper Egyptian tribe selling stolen pharaonic antiquities, until family conflict forces one member into a fateful choice.
Saturday 12 Dec 2026, 7pm
The Fall of Otrar + Introduction
A former Mongol scout, dismissed as insolent for warning of invasion, escapes imprisonment to avert catastrophe in Ardak Amirkulov's thirteenth-century epic telling the story of Genghis Khan's siege of Otrar.
Thursday 19 November, 8.40pm
Chess of the Wind + Q&A
Banned after the 1979 revolution and lost for decades, this Iranian New Wave masterpiece follows heirs consumed by greed, betrayal and violence as they fight to inherit a matriarch's estate. This screening will be introduced by Ali Lalfam, the season curator, followed by a short post-screening Q&A with Iranian filmmaker and actor Ali Mosaffa.
Sunday 22 November, 5pm
The Colour of Pomegranates + Introduction
Sergei Parajanov's avant-garde portrait of Armenian poet Sayat-Nova chronicles his life from youth through death, using framing and the poet's verse to create a distinct, symbolic and poetic work.
Wednesday 9 December, 8.40pm
The Night of Counting the Years + Introduction
Set in 1881, the film follows the Horabat, an Upper Egyptian tribe selling stolen pharaonic antiquities, until family conflict forces one member into a fateful choice.
Saturday 12 Dec 2026, 7pm
The Fall of Otrar + Introduction
A former Mongol scout, dismissed as insolent for warning of invasion, escapes imprisonment to avert catastrophe in Ardak Amirkulov's thirteenth-century epic telling the story of Genghis Khan's siege of Otrar.
