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Their film was shot in secret and smuggled out of Iran. It won an award at Sundance February 5, 20261:00 PM ET
Maryam Ataei and Hossein Keshavarz in Park City, Utah, after the premiere of their film The Friend’s House is Here at the Sundance Film Festival. Mandalit del Barco/NPR hide caption
toggle caption Mandalit del Barco/NPR
A feature film shot covertly in Iran won a jury award for ensemble cast at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Between war and recent street protests, the filmmakers had many challenges getting The Friend’s House is Here finished in time for their premiere.
Set just after last summer’s Iran-Israel war, the film is a portrait of Tehran’s vibrant underground culture. Despite increasing government crackdowns, street concerts, art galleries, avant-garde theater performances, and after parties carry on. They are the spaces where artists celebrate, flirt, and discuss life and art.
The story — all in Persian — centers on two roommates and friends who are part of that scene. Like the actresses who portray them, one performs with an underground theater troupe, and the other makes social media videos of herself dancing in front of historical monuments — something that’s illegal under Iranian law.
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When a woman in the street scolds Pari and Hana for not wearing their hijabs, they laugh. They and their creative friends refuse to be silenced by the regime, even as authorities begin to target them.
Hana Mana and Mahshad Bahram, in The Friend’s House is Here. Alma Linda Films hide caption
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“They just wanna just have a regular life, they wanna be on Instagram, they wanna dance. They wanna be free,” says filmmaker Maryam Ataei. “We wanted to tell the story of sisterhood and a fantastic community of people helping each other.”
Her co-director and husband, Hossein Keshavarz, who also co-wrote and co-produced the film says they were inspired by the young artists they know in Tehran. “We just fell in love with them. They’re so cool. They’re so funny. They’re so hip,” he says. “Resistance is an everyday act for them.”
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Keshavarz says the same defiant generation has been challenging the Iranian government in massive street protests. But as NPR has reported, security forces have arrested and even killed thousands of people since the beginning of the year.
“Even if the government is violently cracking down, these young people don’t want to be told how to live,” he says. “Even though the government brutalizes them, they take their lumps. So many people we’ve worked with have been arrested for such arbitrary reasons, but they keep on and they’re there for each other.”
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Keshavarz says Iranian authorities continue to clamp down on filmmakers critical of the regime, like Jafar Panahi, who is nominated for an Academy Award this year for his film It Was Just an Accident. In Iran, Panahi’s films are banned; he’s been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned in Iran for speaking out.
In December, Panahi was sentenced in absentia to another year in prison. And just this week, his co-screenwriter was arrested.
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Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi discusses his new thriller, ‘It Was Just an Accident’
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panâhi discusses his new thriller, ‘It Was Just an Accident’
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