Tehran City of Love
Intriguing insights into modern Iranian life through three people looking for love in their own ways.
Director: Ali Jaberansari
Cast includes: Mehdi Saki, Forough Ghajabagli
102 Mins / 2019 / Iran | UK | Netherlands, subtitles
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This engagingly downbeat comedy-drama offers intriguing insights into modern Iranian life through three lonely people, each looking for love in their own ways. This is hard enough in any big city - never mind in Tehran, where individual freedoms can't be taken for granted.
In a sexy voice on the telephone, an overweight receptionist seduces men who wouldn't look twice at her real 'me'. In revenge, her sexy alter ego stands up each dates she makes. A former bodybuilding champion now earns a living as a personal trainer. When he gets a promising young sportsman as a client, he drops everything else. A singer at religious funerals is dumped by his fiancée. He tries to find new purpose in life by retraining as a singer at weddings and parties. That's a lot more attractive to women, his friend assures him.
Part portrait of alienation in Iran, part examination of modern dating, its characters struggle as much from their own human frailties as they do from the oppressive politics of Iran’s theocratic regime.
PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR:"I want to thank the Electric Palace team in Hastings for selecting my film for screening. These are strange times and I'm having strange feelings. Three years ago we made a film about lonely people feeling isolated in the big city of Tehran finding ways to connect and love in a city that does not embrace them. We are now finding ourselves globally in a time of isolation and maybe loneliness for some, but at the same time I feel and hope that for many of us this is also a time for recalibrating our sense of self and our sense of belonging and reminding ourselves of those things that are truly precious and valuable in our lives." - Ali Jaberansari |
