Grass is a pioneering silent documentary about the Bakhtiari tribe and their gruelling annual migration. The success of this early classic enabled its directors to go on to make one of the most famous films of all time, King Kong!
The Bakhtiari people of western Iran are herdsmen who to this day move their flocks and herds hundreds of miles for grazing each year. When American film makers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack tracked them down in 1925, this annual migration was entirely on foot and horseback – and through the most dramatic landscape. The film that resulted is a white-knuckle portrait of one of the toughest journeys imaginable. The bare-foot ascent of the snow-covered Zagros Mountains is unforgettable – and the crossing of the Karun River by 50,000 people, with their tents, their worldly possessions plus half a million cattle, sheep and goats is one of the most extraordinary sequences ever filmed. “A fascinating, visually splendid film” (Time Out).

Grass highlights the hardships faced by nomadic peoples, and the ingenuity needed to surmount them and survive. Our screening marks the 3rd anniversary of the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples - and is introduced by Christien van den Anker (Reader in Politics, UWE). There will be stalls from Survival International and other campaigning groups.

Tickets cost £5 (concessions available) and should be booked on 0117 924 4512 or info@pieriancentre.com. The screening is at the Pierian Centre, 27 Portland Square, St Pauls, Bristol BS2 8SA.