Wednesday, April 28, 2010

My Tehran for Sale



A brave and absorbing film ... unique. I want to see it againEvan Williams, The Australian

4 stars, “…an ode to a city under cultural siegeMargaret Pomeranz, At the Movies


Marzieh is a young female actress living in Tehran. The authorities ban her theatre work and, like all young people in Iran, she is forced to lead a secret life in order to express herself artistically.

At an underground rave, she meets Iranian born Saman, now an Australian citizen, who offers her a way out of her country and the possibility of living without fear.

Shot entirely on location in Tehran, MY TEHRAN FOR SALE tells the story of modern day Iranian youth struggling for cultural freedom. It brings to the screen never before seen images of modern urban Iran, and reveals how young Iranian people live behind closed doors.

MY TEHRAN FOR SALE is the first Iranian/Australian feature film collaboration and is the directorial debut of contemporary poet Granaz Moussavi.

Writer-director Granaz Moussavi is an established Iranian poet with several volumes of published verse. Migrating to Australia in 1997 with her family at the age of 22, she went on to graduate in filmmaking and editing. With this debut feature she returns to her native Tehran, employing former friends as lead actors and imbuing her fact-based tale with an angry personal intensity.

Strikingly attractive, if unrelentingly mournful, Marzieh Vafamehr dominates the screen as a dedicated fringe actress (also named Marzieh) who sees a rare opportunity to escape the state’s persecution of her art when she meets Saman (Chegini) at an illegal after-hours disco. He’s a tall, dark Iranian who, through his family’s emigration, now has Australian citizenship.The disco is raided by an outraged militia: “Do you think this is Europe?” one cries, lashing out. Marzieh and Saman start a relationship, become engaged and she begins the lengthy and often corrupt process of applying for a visa to enter the Australian ‘paradise’ that Saman talks about.

97 mins
Rated M
Iranian with English subtitles

Trailers

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.