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“Khas-push”, a 1928 drama directed by Soviet Armenian master Hamo Beknazarian, will screen for the first time at New York's Museum of Modern Art (МоМА) on November 3.

The National Cinema Center of Armenia has loaned the museum the 35mm print of the film from its archive as a result of the cooperation with MoMA.

This is the second Armenian film that has been featured at the world's largest museum. Back in January 2021, a newly printed 35mm copy of the 4K restored version of Sergei Parajanov’s 1967 film "Hakob Hovnatanyan" was screened at the museum and the copy was donated to MoMA's collection.

"Khas-push" dramatizes the Tobacco Protest of 1890, in which an influential clergyman issued a fatwa and banned the use of tobacco after a Qajar king offered a tobacco concession to the United Kingdom. Because Reza Shah often refused to allow foreigners to film in Iran, scenes of revolt against imperialism and theocracy were instead shot in the neighboring Soviet Union. What results is both a paean to Soviet ideals of collective sacrifice—a rag picker becomes a hero—and an astute portrait of political conflict in Iran at the time.