The World Cinema Project (WCP) preserves and restores neglected films from around the world. To date, 54 films from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Central America, South America, and the Middle East have been restored, preserved and exhibited for a global audience. The WCP also supports educational programs, including Restoration Film Schools; intensive, results-oriented workshops allowing students and professionals worldwide to learn the art and science of film restoration and preservation. All WCP titles are available for exhibition rental by clicking "Book This Film."


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MEXICO | 1934

DOS MONJES

TWO MONKS

Director: Juan Bustillo Oro

WRITTEN BY: Juan Bustillo Oro, José Manuel Cordero

EDITING: Juan Bustillo Oro

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Agustín Jiménez

PRODUCER: José San Vicente, Manuel San Vicente

MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Max Urban

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Mariano Rodríguez, Granada, Carlos Toussaint

STARRING: Víctor Urruchúa, Carlos Villatoro, Beltrán de Heredia, Emma Roldán, Magda Haller

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Mexico

LANGUAGE: Spanish with English subtitles

COLOR INFO: Black and White

RUNNING TIME: 85 minutes

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Proa Films

PRODUCER: José San Vicente, Manuel San Vicente

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at L’immagine Ritrovata laboratory in collaboration with Filmoteca de la UNAM and Cinémathèque française. Restoration funded by the Material World Charitable Foundation.

 

 

 


UK | 1966

RAID INTO TIBET

Director: Adrian Cowell

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Chris Menges

PRODUCER: George Patterson

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: UK

LANGUAGE: English/Tibetan with English subtitles

COLOR INFO: Black-and-White

RUNNING TIME: 28 minutes

PRODUCER: George Patterson

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at Cineric Inc. laboratory in association with the Tibet Film Archive. Special thanks to the Cowell family.

In May 1964, three British filmmakers traveled with the Khampa guerrillas over a 20,000-foot pass into occupied Tibet from the remote Tsum region of Nepal and captured dramatic footage of an ambush on a Chinese military convoy. The footage was smuggled out and edited two years later in London, and officially released in 1966 to critical acclaim. Shot by Oscar-winning cinematographer Chris Menges (THE READER, LOCAL HERO, THE KILLING FIELDS), this documentary short is an important historical artifact, representing the only known footage of armed Tibetan resistance fighters in combat with the Chinese.


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

Restoration work was completed at Cineric in New York. The original 16mm camera negative was cleaned, repaired, then wet-gate scanned at 4K to eliminate scratches and other minor defects in the emulsion. The image was subsequently stabilized and digitally cleaned to remove dust, deep scratches, and other visible marks. Because of the extreme conditions in Tibet during the filming, Cineric implemented exposure compensation at the initial scanning of the raw material. Grading was performed by colorist Paul Ensby and supervised by Chris Menges at Technicolor London.

The original sound negative was also scanned and digitally cleaned to reduce background noise and remove clicks and pops. A new 35mm internegative with sound has been made for preservation, along with 35mm prints for conservation and access. In addition, a new HD master and DCP will be produced for digital screenings.


MOROCCO | 1978

ALYAM, ALYAM

Director: Ahmed El Maanouni

WRITTEN BY: Ahmed El Maanouni

EDITING: Martine Chicot

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Ahmed El Maanouni

MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Nass el Ghiwane

SOUND: Ricardo Castro

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Rabii Films

STARRING: Toualàa villagers (Oulad Ziane) in the Casablanca region, and in particular: Abdelwahad and his family, Tobi, Afandi Redouane and Ben Brahim

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Morocco

LANGUAGE: Arabic, French with English subtitles

COLOR INFO: B&W

RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes

Restored by Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with Ahmed El Maanouni.  Restoration funded by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project. 

Alyam, Alyam is a film about shattered dreams and the circumstances leading up to that point; about the shaking of the traditional social structure; about the strength born of desperation and the unrelenting dissipation of lost generations. This is stressed from the first notes of the opening music, by the strangely empty building frame that is slowly filled with people, by the village space, by the silence of the wandering woman who smokes, until the last shot of the film, when a crowd appears from behind a deserted hill. The dreams of a society growing smaller, unable to hold on to the resources that could help it survive, are mirrored by the mother’s helpless prayer, “I need your shadow, I need your light, I need your face.”

I simply wanted to show the farmers’ faces, to honor their sounds and their images, their silences and their words, and that’s why I chose not to interfere and to opt for deliberately restrained composition, movement and mise-enscène. I tried to minimize the camera’s ability to distort, make a point, or discriminate. I wanted each aspect to be presented equally. I did not look for spectacular beauty, but made an effort to let the imagery of the rural world speak through abstraction and silence.

Almost 40 years later, when I watch Alyam, Alyam again, I am still comfortable with my aesthetic choices and my intuitions, but I cannot avoid noticing how, from beginning to end – from the opening shots with the blood shed by the camels, to the crowd of peasants appearing from behind the hills – it all seemed to presage the current tragedy experienced by the thousands whose broken dreams lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean, on which the voice of Nass El Ghiwane’s Larbi Batma seems to strangely resonate: “Alyam, Alyam, oh, those were the days! Why are you crossed? Who changed your course? You were once sweet like milk, now you’re bitter. I love all men as if they were my brothers. My brothers have crushed me. I will silence my pain and let my love be loud.”

- Ahmed El Maanouni


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

The restoration of Alyam, Alyam used the 16mm A/B rolls original camera and sound negatives preserved at Eclair Laboratories, where the 4K scan was performed. Restoration - carried out at Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata - succeeded in stabilizing the image and bringing the original chromatic qualities to light. Director Ahmed El Maanouni supervised the color grading process and approved the final restoration.


MOROCCO | 1981

TRANCES

EL HAL

Director: Ahmed El Maanouni

WRITTEN BY: Ahmed El Maanouni

EDITING: Jean-Claude Bonfanti

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Ahmed El Maanouni

PRODUCER: Izza Génini

MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Nass El Ghiwane

STARRING: Nass El Ghiwane

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Morocco

LANGUAGE: Arabic

COLOR INFO: Color

RUNNING TIME: 87 minutes

PRODUCTION COMPANY: OHRA/SOGEAV

PRODUCER: Izza Génini

Restored in 2007 by Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, Ahmed El-Maanouni, and Izza Genini. Restoration funded by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways and Qatar Museum Authority. 

“It was in 1981 while I was editing a film, The King of Comedy. We worked at night so no one would call us on the telephone and I would have television on, and one channel in New York at the time, around 2 or 3 in the morning, was showing a film called Transes. It repeated all night and it repeated many nights. And it had commercials in it, but it didn’t matter. So I became passionate about this music that I heard and I saw also the way the film was made, the concert that was photographed and the effect of the music on the audience at the concert. I tracked down the music and eventually it became my inspiration for many of the designs and construction of my film The Last Temptation of Christ. […] And I think the group was singing damnation: their people, their beliefs, their sufferings and their prayers all came through their singing. And I think the film is beautifully made by Ahmed El Maanouni; it’s been an obsession of mine since 1981 and that is why we are inaugurating the Foundation with Trances.” –Martin Scorsese, May 2007


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

Notes on the restoration
The restoration of Trances used the original 16mm camera and sound negative provided by producer Izza Génini. The camera negative was restored both photochemically and digitally and blown-up to 35mm format. The sound negative was restored to Dolby SR and digital.

Image: © Courtesy of OHRA-Izza Génini


HUNGARY | 1939

TWO GIRLS ON THE STREET

KÉT LÁNY AZ UTCÁN

Director: André De Toth

WRITTEN BY: Tamás Emod, Rezsö Török

EDITING: Zoltán Kerényi

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Károly Vass

ADAPTED BY: André De Toth

PRODUCER: Béla Lévay

FROM: Hungarian National Film Archive

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Gizella Langermann

STARRING: Bella Bordy (Torma Vica), Mária Tasnádi Fekete (Kártély Gyöngyi), Piroska Vaszary Pletyus (as Vaszary Piri), Gyula Csortos (Filc bácsi), Andor Ajtay, Csiszár István, Károly Kovács, Lali

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Hungary

LANGUAGE: Hungarian with French and English subtitles

COLOR INFO: Black and White

RUNNING TIME: 85 minutes

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Hunnia Filmgyár

PRODUCER: Béla Lévay

Restored in 2010 by Cineteca di Bologna/L'Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum. Restoration funded by Armani, Cartier, Qatar Airways and Qatar Museum Authority. 

André De Toth was a great filmmaker, we are indebted to him for a number of extraordinary films (dating back to his first Hungarian works) and many masterpieces. He fought to make ambitious films and refused to work under a studio contract, thus showing a rare desire for freedom […] One day, following a screening of Round Midnight, De Toth told me, “You made me cry. And it’s hard to cry when you only have one eye.” He comforted and supported me. He was never bitter, he would never have said something like: “Cinema was better when I was making films”. He remained curious, open-minded; he battled for the American Cinematheque on Hollywood Boulevard […] “We’re like passengers driving at full speed on the new highways of communication”, he wrote. “It’s the same road since 1895, only it’s slippier because of the sweat and the blood and with more cracks: each of them a broken dream. These past hundred years have been terrible, yet we’ve enjoyed every single minute of them. As long as this fever, this love for making films survives, nothing will ever change.” On his sets, one big sign read, “Drama should occur in front of the camera, not behind it”, another, “Technology will never replace brains and intelligence”.
(Bertrand Tavernier)


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

The restoration of Két Lány Az Utcán used the original 35mm camera and sound nitrate negatives preserved at the Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum (Hungarian National Film Archive). The digital restoration produced a new 35mm internegative.

Image: © Courtesy of Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum (Hungarian National Film Archive)


THAILAND | 2000

Mysterious Object at Noon

DOKFAH NAI MEU MAAN

Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

EDITING: Mingmongkol Sonakul, Apichatpong Weerasethakul

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Prasong Klimborron

PRODUCER: Gridthiya Gaweewong, Mingmongkol Sonakul

SOUND: Teekadetch Watcharatanin, Sirote Tulsook, Paisit Phanpruksachat, Adhinan Adulayasis

STARRING: Somsri Pinyopol, Duangjai Hiransri, To Hanudomlapr, Kannikar Narong, and the villagers of Thailand

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Thailand

LANGUAGE: Thai

COLOR INFO: Black and White

RUNNING TIME: 88 minutes

PRODUCTION COMPANY: 9/6 Cinema Factory, Firecracker Films, Bangkok

PRODUCER: Gridthiya Gaweewong, Mingmongkol Sonakul

Restored in 2013 by the Austrian Film Museum and Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, LISTO laboratory in Vienna, Technicolor Ltd in Bangkok, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Restoration funded by Doha Film Institute.

On his journey, the director hears a story which he then asks people to continue as they wish— like a game of Chinese Whispers (and relating also to the French Surrealists’ concept of the “cadavre exquis”). The original title, Dokfah nai meu maan, roughly translates as Heavenly Flower in Devil’s Hand. The name of that flower, Dokfah, is also the name of the woman who appears in the story-within-a-film as the teacher of a young paraplegic boy. The title is reminiscent of an archetypical Thai melodrama, but in the hands of the most imaginative re interpreter of national tradition, it becomes an epic meta-narrative.

I want to give the audience the freedom to fly or to float, to just let their mind go here and there, to drift, like when we sit in a train, listen to a Walkman, and look at the landscape. It is liberating, and also the audience understands that they are not watching a routine, three act narrative.

- Apichatpong Weerasethakul


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

The restoration of Mysterious Object at Noon utilized the 35mm duplicate negative with burned-in English subtitles deposited at the Austrian Film Museum by Apichatpong Weerasethakul in 2007. This negative was struck in 1999 from the (now lost) original 16mm camera reversal element.

The duplicate negative was scanned at 3K at the Austrian Film Museum. Painstaking digital restoration work was undertaken to remove dust, scratches and other visible marks while keeping the look (and the specific defects) of the original 16mm camera reversal material intact. Color correction was carried out at the LISTO laboratory in Vienna; the 35mm optical soundtrack negative was transferred at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna; the digital sound restoration was performed at Technicolor Ltd in Bangkok.

The restoration was carried out in close collaboration with the filmmaker and completed in June 2013. The process produced a new 35mm internegative.

Image: © Courtesy of Apichatpong Weerasethakul


INDIA | 1979

KUMMATTY

Director: Aravindan Govindan

WRITTEN BY: Aravindan Govindan

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Shaji N. Karun

STARRING: Ramunni, Master Ashokan, Vilasini Reema, Kothara Gopalkrishnan, Sivasankaran Divakaran, Vakkil, Mothassi, Shankar

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: India

LANGUAGE: Malayalam with English subtitles

COLOR INFO: Color

RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes

PRODUCTION COMPANY: General Pictures Corporation

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna in association with General Pictures Corporation and the Film Heritage Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.

Funding provided by the Material World Foundation.


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

Restored in 4K using the best surviving element: a vintage 35mm print struck from the original camera negative and preserved at the National Film Archive of India. A second 35mm print with English subtitles was used as a reference.

Color grading was supervised by the film’s cinematographer Shaji N. Karun.    

Special thanks to Ramu Aravindan.


INDIA | 1978

THAMP

CIRCUS TENT, THE

Director: Aravindan Govindan

WRITTEN BY: Aravindan Govindan

EDITING: A Ramesan

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Shaji N. Karun

PRODUCER: K. Ravindranathan Nair

STARRING: Nedumudi Venu, Jalaja, V. K. Sreeraman, Bharath Gopi

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: India

LANGUAGE: Malayalam with English subtitles

COLOR INFO: Black and White

RUNNING TIME: 129 minutes

PRODUCER: K. Ravindranathan Nair

Restored by Film Heritage Foundation, The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, and Cineteca di Bologna at Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd.’s Post - Studios, Chennai, and L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, and in association with General Pictures, National Film Archive of India and the family of Aravindan Govindan. Funding provided by Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd. and Film Heritage Foundation.
 


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

THAMP was restored using the best surviving element: a Dupe Negative struck from a 35mm print preserved at the National Film Archive of India.


SENEGAL | 1976

SÉNÉGAL AN XVI

Director: Babacar Gueye and Orlando Lopez

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Senegal

LANGUAGE: French with English subtitles

COLOR INFO: Black and White

RUNNING TIME: 21 minutes

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in collaboration with the Ministère de la Culture et du Patrimoine Historique de Sénégal – Direction du Cinéma. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO―in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna―to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

The 4K restoration was completed using a 16mm print preserved by the Direction du Cinéma in Senegal. With special thanks to Tiziana Manfredi and Marco Lena.


IRAN | 1972

Downpour

RAGBAR

Director: Bahram Beyzaie

WRITTEN BY: Bahram Beyzaie

EDITING: Mehdi Rajaeeyan

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Barbod Taheri

PRODUCER: Barbod Taheri

MUSICAL DIRECTOR: Shida Garachedaghi

STARRING: Parviz Fannizadeh, Parvaneh Masumi, Manuchehr Farid, Mohammad Ali Keshavarz, Hossein Kasbian, Jamsheed Layegh, Chehrazad

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Iran

LANGUAGE: Persian

COLOR INFO: Black and White

RUNNING TIME: 129 minutes

PRODUCTION COMPANY: Mehregan Film

PRODUCER: Barbod Taheri

Restored in 2011 by Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Bahram Beyzaie.  Restoration funded by Doha Film Institute. 

During Downpour, the equations of commercial and intellectual films were the same. The common morality of the action/drama films of the commercial cinema had a tone of political ideology and social activism. The intellectual films were praised for communicating with the mass culture. In that sense, I don’t want to be popular. Many of these (popular) moralities, in my opinion, are wrong and we are all victims of them. So, I have betrayed my people if I endorse them. I have deviated from the morals of the political parties, hence they have labeled me (inaccessible), not the people. At the heart of my harsh expression, there is a love and respect, for the people, that does not exist in superficial appraisals of the masses. … my audiences are those who strive to go one step further, not those who are the guardians of the old equations nor those who dread self examination and self reflexivity.  

–Bahram Beyzaie

I’m very proud that the World Cinema Foundation has restored this wise and beautiful film, the first feature from its director Bahram Beyzaie. The tone puts me in mind of what I love best in the Italian neorealist pictures, and the story has the beauty of an ancient fable – you can feel Beyzaie’s background in Persian literature, theater and poetry. Beyzaie never received the support he deserved from the government of his home country – he now lives in California – and it’s painful to think that this extraordinary film, once so popular in Iran, was on the verge of disappearing forever. The original negative has been either impounded or destroyed by the Iranian government, and all that remained was one 35mm print with English subtitles burned in. Now, audiences all over the world will be able to see this remarkable picture.  

–Martin Scorsese


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

The source element was a positive print with English subtitles provided by director Bahram Beyzaie. Since this is the only known surviving copy of the film – all other film sources were seized and are presumed destroyed – the restoration required a considerable amount of both physical and digital repair.

The surviving print was badly damaged with scratches, perforation tears and mid-frame splices. Over 1500 hours of work were necessary to complete the restoration.

Image: © Courtesy of Bahram Beyzaie


IRAN | 1974

STRANGER AND THE FOG, THE

GHARIBEH VA MEH

Director: Bahram Beyzaie

WRITTEN BY: Bahram Beyzaie

EDITING: Bahram Beyzaie

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Mehrdad Fakhimi, Firooz Malekzadeh

STARRING: Parvaneh Massoumi, Khosrow Shojazadeh, Manuchehr Farid, Esmat Safavi, Sami Tahassoni, Valiyollah Shirandami, Reza Yaghuti, Esmaeel Poor Rez, Mohammad Pour Reza

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Iran

LANGUAGE: Farsi version with English subtitles

COLOR INFO: Color

RUNNING TIME: 140 minutes

Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Bahram Beyzaie. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. 

 

NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

THE STRANGER AND THE FOG was restored in 4K using the original camera and sound negatives and was carried out at L'Immagine Ritrovata in 2023. Color grading was supervised by Bahram Beyzaie. With special thanks to Ehsan Khoshbakht and Mozhdeh Shamsai.


CAMEROON | 1975

MUNA MOTO

Director: Dikongué-Pipa

WRITTEN BY: Dikongué-Pipa

EDITING: Andrée Davanture, Dominique Saint-Cyr, Jules Takam

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Jean-Pierre Dezalay, Jean-Luc Léon

STARRING: David Endéné, Arlette Din Bell, Philippe Abia, Gisèle Dikongué-Pipa, Jeanne Mvondo

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION: Cameroon

LANGUAGE: French with English subtitles

COLOR INFO: Black and White

RUNNING TIME: 90 minutes

Restored in 2019 by Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata and The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project. Funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.

This restoration is part of the African Film Heritage Project, an initiative created by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers and UNESCO – in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna – to help locate, restore, and disseminate African cinema.


NOTES ON THE RESTORATION:

The 4K restoration of Muna Moto was made from the 35mm original camera and sound negatives and a second generation dupe negative.

Despite wet-gate scanning to minimize mold damage, some sections of the camera negative had to be replaced by scanning the dupe negative.

Following director Dikongue-Pipa’s suggestion, the dupe negative was also used for the opening and closing cards which differed from the original negative. A vintage 35mm print was used as a reference for picture grading. Special thanks to Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique.


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