Courtesy Disco Tehran

In Rome on the evening of April 4, as Iran was being pounded by U.S. and Israeli missiles, a large crowd celebrated the Persian new year in the Eternal City’s Alcazar club dancing to Middle East beats, including vintage Iranian tracks by iconic pop star Googosh who was incarcerated in Tehran during the early 1980s and now lives in L.A.

The itinerant event, called Disco Tehran – that also plays in New York, London and Berlin – is organised by Arya Ghavamian, a filmmaker who left Iran in 2008 and wound up in New York where, besides Disco Tehran, he co-founded Cinema Tehran that organizes Iranian film pop ups around the world.

As Iran Makes Headlines, Iranian Cinema Raises Its Standing