The Persian Version, 2023.
Written and Directed by Maryam Keshavarz.
Starring Layla Mohammadi, Niousha Noor, Kamand Shafieisabet, Bella Warda, Bijan Daneshmand, Shervin Alenabi, Jerry Habibi, Samuel Tehrani, Tom Byrne, Chiara Stella, Arty Froushan, Parsa Kaffash, and Reza Diako.
SYNOPSIS:
When a large Iranian-American family gathers, a family secret is uncovered that catapults the estranged mother and daughter into an exploration of the past, and to discover they are more alike than they know.
Understandably, exploring an Iranian family across generations would have some tonal shifts. However, what’s frustrating about writer/director Maryam Keshavarz’s personal, semi-autobiographical narrative feature, The Persian Version, is that its consistent flashback transitions to prior decades (with a present-day 2000s) typically come with abandoning a fascinating subplot or character dynamic recently brought up.
The focus also becomes so stripped away from Iranian-American film student daughter Leila (Layla Mohammadi) trying to understand better her strict, no-nonsense, traditional mother Shireen (Niousha Noor) through the process of writing and learning about hidden family secrets from other characters, everything else begins compounding and taking precedence over anything involving her, which is a baffling choice considering she is a gay woman that has found herself knocked up by a man at a costumed Halloween party, firm in her choice to keep the baby.
The Persian Version starts by resembling the worst type of Sundance movie (where the film initially premiered), complete with quirky flourishes and far too-on-the-nose licensed song choices. At the same time, Leila charts her upbringing from Iran to America, not to mention the adjustments, the bullying, and the enforced media oppression back in her homeland. Her life is a mess; she still regrets a failed relationship with another woman and struggles to live up to expectations, whereas one of her eight older brothers is engaged and mildly stressed over her father’s heart condition in need of a transplant. She has always been an outsider, enigmatic, and willing to carve her path regardless of cultural norms, creating a rift between her and her mother to the point where they mostly sit in silence rather than talk to one another on the rare occasion they are together.
Strangely enough, that approach to the material is dropped in favor of something more dramatic as flashbacks show how Shireen was once similar and her stubborn willingness to support the family in ways Dad couldn’t. Some of these flashbacks jarringly go on for a lengthy time, with an intriguing one following Shireen’s commitment to balancing parenthood alongside becoming a realtor who finds success through tending to the needs of minorities and the philosophy that if one comes, more will come, which is a force more of a racist mantra in the minds of her co-workers.
Frustratingly, The Persian Version doesn’t commit to settling into a time, once again jumping to an earlier point in time, this time to reveal a family scandal. It is a history filled with drama, gossip, and tumultuous times for a young Shireen, already married and with her first child, that there is a separate movie here alone. By this point, it’s crazy to think that this film started as a story of cultural differences through Westernization with Cyndi Lauper needle-drops to an exploration of harsh, rough motherhood.
Credit goes to Maryam Keshavarz for miraculously tying The Persian Version together with a heartfelt, beautifully acted ending, but the journey spanning multiple flashback decades and a forgotten protagonist along the way repeatedly stumble upon intriguing dynamics, sprinting past them without diving deeper into them to reach that emotional finale.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
