User Reviews

"Tehran Taboo" is an Austrian/German co-production from this year (2017) and this is the most known career effort so far by writer and director Ali Soozandeh. Given the subject, I am not surprised at all that this film that runs for slightly over 1.5 hours has managed to score some awards attention already, also in Cannes. This is about life in the Iranian capital of Tehran in the present and it's a really dark and shocking depiction. Oh yeah, I also need to say that this movie is animated from start to finish. The focus here is on a group of people and their (not so) every day life. We have a mother working as a prostitute who tries to get his mute son a normal life, but obstacles from school and authorities make it hard for her. We have a pregnant woman whose man cheats on her and who has had several miscarriages already. We have an aspiring musician who takes a girl's virginity and tries his best to make it possible for her to have an operation that won't let her fiancé find out about what happened.

One of the film's strengths is that it does really well in terms of shades. Even as these characters I just described may be ahead of their country's limited progress in terms of equality, they still are far from perfect. That phone joke basically costs the innocent woman her life. The young guy made the girl drunk, drugged her even. The girl lied about the real reason for the operation. Even the little boy causes severe damage by telling the old man where to find the candy. They may not be rotten or evil or anything, but they are all far from angels. The bearded man is the best example of how the country keeps the progressive ones on the leash. He gives the woman the apartment, he gives her some money, but he also does not give her the documents/signatures she needs although it is his job to do so. And in the end what he does to her is close to rape showing us that he will always be the one in charge. That's a nice metaphor and the film has others too that work pretty well like the recurring themes of the lights up there that are explained in the final scene or the kittens or the photographer etc. From that perspective, the movie really has a lot to offer.

Overall, it is definitely among the best animated films I have seen from 2017. Unsurprisingly though, it will not be a contender at the Oscars in the Animated Feature category. A bit of a shame as I could have seen it make some waves. Of course with all the violence and sex, it is an animated film exclusively for grown-ups (not an adult film though obviously). I am not surprised the director worked on The Green Wave as an animator. To me the film seemed a bit similar to Waltz with Bashir in terms of the overall contents, but also in terms of the atmosphere, even if war does not really play a big role in here. Finally, to end the review on a positive note, I would like to say that the ways in which the younger generation is depicted here offers room for hope that things could turn better in the next 50 years. We'll see if they will. Still its depiction of brutal reality would get the movie banned within an instant in Iran I am sure. It's a very depressing watch and it should also have us question the dominant religion and its approach to female rights in particular. They are treated worse than animals frequently to be honest and we should keep that in mind the next time we complain about sexism here in the Western World. Over there is where things are really rotten. But I am not surprised that Soozandeh did not make faith a crucial component of this film. It fits in well with the general approach these days when it comes to looking away and over-the-top tolerance. Anyway, enough of that. I recommend the watch of course. This was a very intelligent and important movie. If you like stuff like the aforementioned Walth with Bashir or Panahi's Taxi, then see this one here too.

In the times when Iran is more than just a breaking news, this movie comes to satisfy curiosity about this mysterious, isolated but grand and ancient country.

The movie is loaded with social criticism, despair, hypocrisy, deception. Probably this makes it weight a bit more than necessary in the eyes and tastes of (experienced) spectators. There is a loud cry for the women's rights, which is somehow, of course, expected.

However, there is one thing, one theme, that actually made me write this review. This is the theme of the position and role of the child in the Middle Eastern traditions and culture. A culture that had largely impacted Europe and the West and still could be sensed in the border areas between the two worlds and/ or in the psychological disorders on the West.

The main hero is a muted kid of 5 who is witnessing the prostitution work of his mother and other peculiar elements of adults' everyday life. The concept that the children are a complete property of their parent(s) and the latter can do whatever they want with their kids is shown very well in a contrasting conflict with the modern, post-industrialisation and globalisation understanding of the West for protection of the children's rights. In this sense, the authors of the movie deserve big congratulations for the courage to try - successfully - to shock the Western audience.

This Persian/ Middle Eastern or even old-tradition, generally speaking, concept for the social role of children demonstrates a set of parents-children relations, which probably existed worldwide before the era of the added value, market economy, competition, mobility, globalisation, now covered - as we can see it - by social and human rights protection.

Having said that, I am personally not sure whether the Western public may even understand the movie message being bewildered by the shocking scenes of a child's life in his "first 7 years".

As a conclusion, I think this is a movie to be recommended, a movie showing Persian taboos and probably hinting about Western taboos regarding the capacity to look objectively and impartially on what is happening just next to us, out of the "golden billion"...

I have to admit it's a pretty tough movie to watch. It is clear from the outset that this is a critique of Iran and its laws, but also of the people. The film hits my head right at the beginning in the first scene which to me personally is scary, scarier than many of today's horrors. The contrast of too strict laws and hypocrisy is present in each of the stories we follow through the film and which are then intertwined. Due to the rotoscope method, it was a bit unusual for me, but I quickly got used to it and later because of that the animations were too real for me and every emotion could be seen on the characters. I wonder if the film would have had a greater effect if I had watched real actors of flesh and blood, but this was hand on heart very very close. I would say that the film does not have the main characters, but we follow a few people through their average life in Iran, but each of them has their own dark secret, which is why they are going through a difficult situation. On the outside, everything looks wonderful and beautiful, but when we just scratch a little, we see real malice, clutter and unpleasant situations in everyone. In the end, nothing is as it seemed at first. The film also has no protagonists and antagonists but very layered and "gray" (no black and white) characters, we get to know them very well through the situations they go through. I would even say that characters who are initially presented as some kind of antagonists (big quotes because as I said there are no such in the film) like a young musician or a promiscuous mother, in the end I don't actually see them as bad people because of their motivation. They looked at how to help another, not how to take advantage of others, and this was actually done by others who were presented to us as great people like a respectable judge or a young husband. Visually, the film reminded me of comics from the 1990s, I don't know why, I'm not an expert, I just feel that way. I noticed constant taking picture for various documents and obviously it was very important for the director to point out. The backgrounds and facial expressions change depending on the occasion and request of the photographer, but it is interesting to me that in the last photograph the young musician decided to do contrary to the photographer's conventional opinion and advice just as he decided to heed the advice and leave Iran. We do not know his fate, but the rest of the society we followed has no happy ending or bright future. Criticism certainly goes to the absurdities of the law in Iran that accompanies the absurd situations of the people concerned. I don't believe I'm going to watch this movie again because it hit me and it's by no means easy to watch.

Well to be honest I have never been to Iran and I would admit that it made me relate to the present condition of my own country i.e. Pakistan but not with so much strictness.... FYI couples in my country can hold hands in public.

Anyways what I loved about this film is use of symbolism and how each character and their conflicts and stories are beautifully interwoven with those of the rest of the cast. I truly loved the ending and I could easily follow the narrative of the story with complete believability.

The film flawlessly portrayed the irony and hypocrisy of human nature especially the ever unbeatable but soon to be abolished "Patriarchal Power" that is heavily exercised in 3rd World Countries...

I could go on and on but I would like to conclude and say that if you ready to face some serious dark realities of the Most So-called Islamic States this film give you plentiful food for thought :D :D :D

It has the eye catching title, all the bells and whistles of a slick Hollywood made movie but that's where it ends as it waffles thru the plot hole ridden story, it attaches the social ills, moral corruption in the seedy underbelly of Tehran to the Mullahs (Islamic clerics) showing their political posters at every opportunity, placing the blame on their heads, if it had gone a little more deeper to understand the why's more it could have redeemed it self but it just floats above those reality based questions to tell a story that seems extremely bizarre, why is the prostitute selling her body, why is her husband in jail, why is Sara repeatedly aborting her baby, why is Donya so desperate to sell her self to Sheikhs, the writer left out the million pound elephant in the room which is that for the past 40 years Iran has been under constant sanctions, embargos, wars which it did not start, before the revolution there was the Shah who was a despot with his secret police, before that an elected leader was deposed, this is summary of what the last 70 years have been like, Iran has been the pig pong ball in a match between various global powers. I guess a movie that tries to tell the whole story would not be marketable by Hollywood/EU as that would be very uncomfortable its the easy way out, have a problem any problem blame the Government, and the fairy tale world known as US/EU has solved all the societal ills and there are no evil abusers of women, rape is non existent, pay is equal, objectifying women is a crime, domestic, workplace violence does not happen, drugs, prostitution, joblessness mental illness, racism etc has been solved. It would be refreshing if Soozandeh told a story which was balanced and positive along with the harsh realities, a little more depth along with tying up loose ends instead of overly dramatic nonsense. 1 star is for the artists who did a brilliant job they deserve an Oscar for working with a handicapped script loved all of them Bravo.