“The Persian Version”: The ideal film for the next girls’ night out

2024-03-14 12:52:56

Kultur „The Persian Version“

The ideal film for the next girls’ night out

As of: 1:52 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes

Dancing as hard as you can: Scene from “The Persian Version”

Which: Sony Pictures

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The more underestimated genres are often the most difficult to implement. The family comedy “The Persian Version” now succeeds where so many women’s empowerment films fail: to entertain without drifting into shallowness or trying to raise the finger.

It’s such a thing with film reviews. Sometimes even a bad film offers so much interesting food for thought that by the end of the review you’re almost tempted to think it’s worth watching. And then again there are films that are pretty good, but you can’t think of much to write about them. “The Persian Version” is such a pretty good film. A family comedy that uplifts and amuses, but at the same time touches you and doesn’t close your eyes to the hardships of life. A girls’ night out entertainment that so many films want to be, but then fail due to the underestimated genre requirements.

Maryam Keshavarz’s autobiographical comedy won the Screenplay and Audience Awards at the 39th Sundance Film Festival. And while the life story of the Iranian-American Leila (Layla Mohammadi) and her barely older mother Shireen (Niousha Noor), who grew up in Iran, is also a predictable female power and emancipation drama without surprising turning points, the clichés depicted in it are at least original clichés .

Father, mother, 9 children: The Iranian-American extended family in “The Persian Version”

Which: Sony Pictures

Maximilian (Tom Byrne), for example, who unexpectedly impregnates Leila, who is wearing a bikini and burkini costume, right at the beginning at a Halloween party, has the Hugh grin, but also likes to dress up as a drag queen. He’s not gay, but Leila is a lesbian. That is, except for Halloween night. Her marriage to a woman, which has broken down, has a similar impact on the everyday life of the traditional Iranian parents as the sudden pregnancy. At the end, as expected, the entire extended family gathers around the child’s bed, where long-hidden family secrets are revealed.

But the long, intense look back at Leila’s mother’s childhood seems even more lively than these cascading events, which Leila tells with a lively vivacity, breaking the fourth wall again and again. She was married as a young girl to a man, Leila’s father, who later turned out to already have a wife. Newcomer Kamand Shafieisabet, who lets young Shireen shoulder her difficult fate with strength and pride, is a discovery and the secret star of the film.

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And Shireen as an adult also steals every show from Leila. After her husband’s sudden accident, the mother of 9, without any training or professional experience, suddenly has to reinvent herself as the sole supporter of the family. With her entrepreneurial spirit and stubbornness, she becomes a successful broker, proving that freedom from prejudice can also be economically worthwhile.

“The Persian Version” reflects not only the clash of cultures, but also that of generations. The fact that he does not simply take sides with one side and subject the other to pedagogical instruction is his strength. When the song “Girls just want to have fun” comes on and the film turns into a musical at times, you’re happy to put up with it. And even wants to rock along a little.