Postschi

Dariush Mehrjui (1939–2023) was one of the leading figures of the Iranian New Wave of the 1960s and 1970s. His scathing indictment POSTSCHI was presented in the Berlinale's Forum section in 1972 and subsequently acquired by Arsenal for distribution. In 2025, the film was restored by the World Cinema Project and the Cineteca di Bologna in conjunction with Dariush Mehrjui’s family, on the basis of two 35mm positive prints that had been kept at Arsenal—as far as is known, the film's last remaining material. Loosely based on Georg Büchner’s Woyzeck, POSTSCHI  tells the story of postman in a small town. To provide his wife with a modest standard of living, he helps out a local sheep farmer and collects herbs for a veterinarian who prescribes him strange remedies for his impotence. The farmer’s Western-educated nephew wants to turn the sheep farm into a large-scale pig farm. He also seduces the postman's wife, which causes the main character to descend into madness. (Annette Lingg)