THE PERSIAN VERSION

Wednesday, February 21, 2024
The Persian Version   USA
Location: SilverCity
Showtimes: 6:30 & 8:30 pm

Director: Maryam Keshavarz
Cast: Layla Mohammadi, Niousha Noo
Running time: 107 minutes
Language: English, Persian with English subtitles

Awards: National Board of Review: Top Ten Independent Films; Sundance 2023: Audience Award; Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (Maryam Keshavarz); Calgary International Film Festival: Audience Award-Best International Feature. Six other nominations. 

“Braids comedy and tragedy, vibrant aplomb and thoughtful soberness...”—Lisa Kennedy, Variety

Writer-director Maryam Keshavarz, who previously won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival for her debut film, “Circumstance,” returns with this uproarious, genre-blurring crowd pleaser about identity, belonging, and secrets — those that tie families together and pull them apart, perhaps at the same time. 

Just as brash as she is introspective, Leila (Layla Mohammadi, “The Sex Lives of College Girls”) defies expectation at every turn: those of her parents, and in particular her mother, Shireen (Niousha Noor, “Kaleidoscope”), who disapproves of Leila’s disregard for tradition and cultural norms; and those of her romantic partners, who are perplexed by the fondness that Leila has for her family (and Iranian heritage) despite their differences, simmering just beneath the surface of her feigned nonchalance. 

But it becomes harder for Leila to keep her opposing lives separate when she discovers she is pregnant just as her family convenes in New York for her father’s heart transplant surgery.

It’s here that the film takes a beautiful and unexpected turn, as we are transported back in time to Shireen’s childhood in Iran through to her initial experiences in America, understanding the level of loss and personal sacrifice that has come to inform her rocky relationship with Leila. 

As past and present continue to collide, the film balances the somber weight of its generations-spanning ambition with a quirky dynamism in the form of “Fleabag-esque”, fourth-wall-breaking monologues and intricately choreographed dance sequences as Leila’s love for retro pop music bleeds onto the screen. 

“The Persian Version” is undeniably full of heart and with it, heartache — one that beats to its own drum and will bring audiences to their feet