Ghazal-e Sorkh · 2026

In 1976, there was a call to boycott the Shiraz Arts Festival. Some well-known international artists joined immediately; others reluctantly. “The giants aren’t coming this year,” wrote the Iranian newspaper Kayhan. Between fragments of films commissioned by the Shah and the films and books banned in the same years are stories that first began with ‘crime-producing’ poems – each returning to a fire that never stopped burning.