Back at Sundance with her debut novel Circumstance at 60 Premiere, Iranian-American writer and director Maryam Keshavarz enters the festival’s American drama competition with a Persian version of a popular quasi-autobiographical comedy .
A multi-generational family story roughly spanning 2000 years, two continents and a variety of cultures, from traditional Muslim families to queer New Yorkers, this lively, endearing work features fourth-wall-breaking monologues, witty explanatory graphics and well-choreographed Dance numbers draw the audience’s attention to classic American and Iranian pop songs. The sprawling ensemble is led by Layla Mohammadi as the director’s alter ego Leila and Niousha Noor as her immigrant mother, Shirin. ), they clash in classic melodramatic fashion, but eventually learn to respect each other after the secret is revealed in extended flashbacks.
Persian version
Bottom line Pops and fun for the whole family.
Place : Sundance Film Festival (American Drama Contest) Cast: Layla Mohammadi, Niousha Noor, Kamand Shafieisabet, Bella Warda, Chiara Stella, Bijan Daneshmand, Shervin Alenabi, Tom Byrne, Shervin Alenabi, Arty Froushan, Samuel Tehrani, Jerry Habibi, Reza Hamid, Andrew Malik, Parmida Vand, Ash Goldeh, Parsa Kaffash, Mia Foo
Director/Screenwriter: Maryam Keshavarz 1 hour47 minute
The present tense of this movie is somewhere in the early days 2000, where it is Brooklyn, Midtown Manhattan, and Jersey City, where the main character grows up with sometimes narrator Laila and Shirin, mother Shirin, doctor Ali Reza (Bijan Daneshmand), and eight-year-old Ro Thurs. That group of siblings gets a quick thumbnail introduction, but it’s clear from the start that their function is to be a chorus of gentle clown boy chatter.
Although she was an academic star in school, Leila, now in her twenties, is pursuing her goal of becoming a filmmaker. Single-minded focus on her career has ruined her brief marriage to Elena (Miaf), leaving Leila free to enjoy unconditional hookups. For example, after a Halloween party, she teamed up with New York-based British actor Maxmilian (Tom Byrne), who played the leading man in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, in his stage costume She wears a skimpy but revealing “burka-kini”. Meanwhile, everyone anxiously awaits Ali Reza’s recovery from heart transplant surgery. The health crisis has brought many brothers home to help Shirin at the hospital while Leila stays home most of the time cooking for her grandmother Mamanjoon (Bella Ward), a lovely woman who loves to be with her. Her granddaughter dances along, and she is often given flashbacks to have anal sex with men to preserve her hymen for marriage. Mamanjoon casually mentions a family scandal when Leila’s parents returned to Iran before immigrating, which piques the young woman’s curiosity.
As the film’s focus gradually shifts from Leila to Shirin, we see vignettes explain how, as a multitasking hostess, she simultaneously earned her GED and realtor’s license in order to bring extra income income. A natural business whiz, Shirin excels in sales and helps plant seeds in New Jersey’s Little India community with her astute handling of immigrant clients. But as it turns out, she’s been haunted by past traumas all along, which is picked up in a scene with a teenage Shirin (first-time actor Kamander Shafiye Sabet, a real find) As it turns out, just 47 years old she married Ali Reza (Shervin Alenabi) and moved to his village.
Filming took place in Turkey; Keshavarz explained in a director’s statement that she was barred from returning to Iran after filming her final feature film there. The Persian-language scenes, including the dance moves and sense of humor, feel very different from the films we’re used to seeing from Iranian filmmakers. While acknowledging the oppression of women in the culture, and the heavy burden of tradition (the film was filmed just before Mahsa Amini protested hijab laws and the morality police began), there is nothing slow-paced, self-serious about the big-name Iranian auteur A sense of heaviness prevails in the work. Occasionally, Keshavarz makes the comedy a little too broad — such as in the final scene, in which almost everyone in the movie is packed into a hospital room at once — but even then, the film’s infectious, heady energy irresistible.
Full credits
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (US Drama Competition)actor: Layla Mohammadi, Niousha Noor, Kamand Shafeisabet, Bella Warda, Chiara Stella, Bijan Daneshmand, Shervin Alenabi, Tom Byrne, Shervin Alenabi, Artie Fruchan, Samuel Dehra Ni, Jerry Habibie, Reza Hamid, Andrew Malik, Pamida Vander, Ash Gold, Pasha Kafash, Mia Foo
Production companies: Stage 6 Films, Marakesh Films, Archer Gray, AGX, A Bigger Boad, City Boy Hands Director/Screenwriter: Maryam KeshavarzProducers: Maryam Keshavarz, Anne Carey, Ben Howe, Luca Borghese, Peter Block, Cory Neal
Executive Producers: Nyla Hazratjee, Amy Nauiokas, Alvaro Valente
Director of Photography: Andre Jager
product ion designer: First Yunluel Costume designer: Burcu Yamak Editing: Abolfazl Talooni, Joanne Yarrow Music : Rostam Batmangl ijMusic Supervisor: Linda Cohen
Choreographer: Mertcan Agirtas
Casting: Lindsey Weissmueller2011 Sales: UTA
Production companies: Stage 6 Films, Marakesh Films, Archer Gray, AGX, A Bigger Boad, City Boy Hands Director/Screenwriter: Maryam KeshavarzProducers: Maryam Keshavarz, Anne Carey, Ben Howe, Luca Borghese, Peter Block, Cory Neal
Director of Photography: Andre Jager
product ion designer: First Yunluel Costume designer: Burcu Yamak Editing: Abolfazl Talooni, Joanne Yarrow Music : Rostam Batmangl ijMusic Supervisor: Linda Cohen
Casting: Lindsey Weissmueller2011 Sales: UTA
1 hour 47 minutes THR Newsletter2011
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