Past Film/Video | Classics

Gabbeh

(Mohsen Makhmalbaf, 1996)

A woman wearing bright blue robes lays on a rug with her hands on her stomach.

A modern Iranian cinema classic, Gabbeh is a brilliantly colorful, profoundly romantic ode to beauty, nature, love, and art.

The acclaimed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s masterpiece is an epic tale of the forbidden passion that shapes the legend of a magical carpet. A folkloric rug that depicts a man and a woman riding away on horseback is the prized possession of a nomadic elderly couple. When they wash it on the bank of a creek, a beautiful young woman—Gabbeh—suddenly emerges from the rug to join them. Once held hostage by the family that fashioned the rug, Gabbeh reveals that the rug’s secret lies within a mysterious black-clad rider on a white horse. In Farsi with English subtitles. (75 mins., DCP)

Gabbeh is being shown as part of Wex Open House 2024. Join us at 4 PM before the screening for music, talks with exhibiting artists, hands-on art making, and gallery experiences with educators.

IMAGE CAPTION
Gabbeh, courtesy of the American Genre Film Archive.

"Movies such as this work like meditation or music, to nudge us toward the important."
Roger Ebert

Read more

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
National Endowment for the Arts 
Ohio Humanities

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Rohauer Collection Foundation

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY 
Greater Columbus Arts Council
 
The Wexner Family 
Institute of Museum and Library Services
 
Mellon Foundation 
Every Page Foundation 
Ohio Arts Council, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts 
CampusParc 
Nationwide Foundation 
Ohio State’s Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme 
The Columbus Foundation 
Axium Packaging

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY 
Ohio State Energy Partners 
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection 
David Crane and Elizabeth Dang 
Melissa Gilliam and William Grobman 
Rebecca Perry Damsen and Ben Towle

Close

Past Film/Video

Gabbeh