The source element for this restoration was a positive print with English subtitles provided by director Bahram Bayzaie. 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.

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 Bayzaie

I’m very proud that the World Cinema Foundation has restored this wise and beautiful film, the first feature from its director Bahram Bayzaie. 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 Bayzaie’s background in Persian literature, theater and poetry. Bayzaie 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