The Film Forum in New York City will be presenting the US theatrical premiere of Ali Soozandeh’s audacious, attention-grabbing animated feature Tehran Taboo on Wednesday, February 14. The two-week engagement will run through Feb. 27 with screenings at 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 p.m. Monday-Friday and at 12:30, 2:20, 4:15, 6:10, 8:10 & 10:10 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Using rotoscope animation techniques, Tehran Taboo shifts between POV characters and their stories to explore the sexual double-standards and hypocrisy of life in modern-day Iran: a young woman needs an operation to “restore” her virginity; a divorce judge (in the Islamic Revolutionary Court) extorts favors from a prostitute; a pregnant woman is desperate to work for a living so she may live independently; young women (purportedly virgins) are sold to Dubai for large sums of money.
Soozandeh, making his feature debut, paints a complicated portrait of a social order in which women are at the bottom rung of a ladder built on religion, the law, and plain old misogyny. The Iranian-born writer and director, who has been living in exile in Germany since the age of 25, uses animation to skate the problem of not being able to film in his home country.
Tehran Taboo was an official selection at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival and screened as part of Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Film Forum screenings will be presented in Farsi with English subtitles.
Credits: Written and directed by Ali Soozandeh. Produced by Frank Geiger, Ali Samadi Ahadi, Mark Fencer & Armin Hofmann. Cinematography by Martin Gschlact. Edited by Frank Geiger & Andrea Mertens. Music by Ali N. Askin. Art direction by Ali Soozandeh. VFX Supervisors: Ali Samadi Ahadi & Christian “Pingo” Schiffler. Head of Digital Painting: Alireza Darvish. Lead Shading/Texturing Artist: Carlos Cursaro. With Elmira Rifizadeh (Pari), Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Sara), Arash Marandi (Babak) & Bilal Yasar (Elias). Germany / France / Austria. A Kino Lorber release.
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