Screening will be followed by a Q&A with Amir Naderi in person and lead actor Madjid Niroumand via Zoom.
Amiro, an illiterate 11-year-old orphan living alone in an abandoned tanker in the Iranian port city of Abadan, survives by shining shoes, selling water, and diving for deposit bottles, while being bullied by both adults and competing older kids. But he finds solace by dreaming about departing cargo ships and airplanes and by running...seemingly to nowhere.
Often compared to De Sica’s SHOESHINE and THE BICYCLE THIEF (and other great works of Italian Neo-Realism), Buñuel’s LOS OLVIDADOS, Héctor Babenco’s PIXOTE, and Truffaut’s THE 400 BLOWS, Naderi’s tenth feature film, inspired by his own childhood, is among the films that first drew the world’s attention to the New Iranian Cinema. THE RUNNER was shown in Venice and London, though not released in the U.S. until 1991. The new restoration features brand new subtitles by Maryam Najafi and Bruce Goldstein.
New restoration by Rialto Pictures, with the support of Cineric, Inc.