Centenary screening of Grass (1925) with live music by Payman Yazdanian

Grass

Screening at Kings Place, London, on May 11, 2025. Book here.

Grass (1925), one of the canonical greats of the silent era by the directorial team of Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack—today mostly remembered for their iconic sound-era cult film King Kong—is a documentary on the heroic annual migration of the nomadic Bakhtiari tribes of Iran. It is an epic film about people who live epic lives. The restless filmmakers identify with the people they follow, transforming their journey into some of the grandest vistas of silent cinema ever captured on film.

The film will be accompanied by Payman Yazdanian, an acclaimed Iranian pianist and composer renowned for his film scores and contemporary classical works. His music, blending Western and Persian influences, has been featured in the soundtracks of films by Abbas Kiarostami and Asghar Farhadi. For this screening, he will be joined by Adib Rostami on kamancheh and tonbak, adding a rich musical dimension to the experience.

The screening will be introduced by film historian and curator Ehsan Khoshbakht, who will share fascinating stories behind the making of this classic.