Fiction

Teheran Tabu

Tehran Taboo
Ali Soozandeh
DEU, AUT 2017
96 min
V'17

Animation proves a cunning technical choice in TEHRAN TABOO, a first feature written and directed by Ali Soozandeh. Like Marjane Satrapi’s 2007 PERSEPOLIS, it offers just enough distance to explore the highly charged theme of sexual and personal freedom in Iran without salaciousness. Women are the main victims here, whether married, divorced or single, and their lives are depicted as pure tragedy.
Far from the usual victimized streetwalker, the prostitute Pari in the first episode embodies the truth that no repressive system can completely quell the human spirit. There’s something that recalls Anna Magnani’s earthiness and great heart in Elmira Rafizadeh’s many-hued performance. Pari’s backstory is a failed marriage to a drug addict who is now in prison. When she tries to get a judge in the Islamic Revolutionary Court to sign her divorce papers, he barters his signature for a concubine arrangement. She moves into an apartment he owns with little Elias, which is not such a bad deal. (Deborah Young)

In the presence of Ali Soozandeh and Siir Eloglu.

Credits
  • Elmira Rafizadeh - Pari
  • Zahra Amir Ebrahimi - Zara
  • Arash Marandi - Babak
  • Negar Nasseri - Donya
  • Hasan Ali Mete - Judge
  • Ali Soozandeh
  • Martin Gschlacht
  • Frank Geiger
  • Andrea Mertens
  • Ali N. Askin
  • Ali Samadi Ahadi
  • Christian Schiffler
  • Erika Navas
Little Dream Entertainment, Coop99

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