10 great Iranian family dramas

Directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is the most recent film from Iran to be nominated for the Oscar for best international feature film. It’s a twisty thriller that finds a family patriarch growing increasingly paranoid, to the point that he turns against his own kin. 

The filmmaking was beset with complications, as Rasoulof made the film in secret, directing it from his couch after being released from prison. He fled Iran on foot after the film was completed and now lives in Germany. Despite this adversity, the results are a triumph, belonging to a rich tradition of Iranian film that have focused on the family, in a country where the family unit serves as a particularly vital social, cultural and even business network.

Despite tough censorship laws, filmmakers in Iran have continued to reflect Iranian experiences through their work, with many focusing on the family unit in order to critique larger power structures. Countless Iranian filmmakers have focused on family in their work, including Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi, Majid Majidi, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Rakhsan Banietemad and Dariush Mehrjui. From charming, kindhearted portraits of childhood to harrowing looks at families on the brink, Iranian family dramas take many different approaches but are characterised by the nuance and understanding bestowed upon their characters.

Ahead of the release of The Seed of the Sacred Fig, the selection below spans nearly 40 years of post-revolutionary Iranian cinema.

Director: Abbas Kiarostami

Young Ahmad (Babak Ahmadpour) has made a mistake: he’s taken his friend Reza’s (Ahmed Ahmadpour) notebook home from school. Reza has repeatedly not done his homework and is threatened with expulsion should he not complete it again. Determined to help him, Ahmad travels to the neighbouring village to give the notebook back to Reza – but he has no idea where his friend lives.   

Shot in an almost documentary style, Kiarostami’s film follows Ahmad as he searches for his friend. In turning a small task into a hero’s journey, Kiarostami loads all of Ahmad’s interactions with meaning. Ahmad has an unshakable drive to do the right thing, and he takes on a seemingly straightforward journey that’s about his sense of honour and desire to help those in need. Where is the Friend’s House? is one of the great studies of the purity of children. In the ordinary, Kiarostami finds the extraordinary.

Director: Jafar Panahi

Like Kiarostami with Where Is the Friend’s House?, in The White Balloon Jafar Panahi turns a simple task into an irresistible odyssey, one that simultaneously reveals the cruelty of the human spirit and the beauty of innocence and faith. On the eve of the Iranian new year, seven-year-old Razieh (Aida Mohammadkhani) wants to buy a goldfish that’s much bigger than the tiny ones in her family’s pond. Her mother gives her a banknote, and Razieh sets off to buy one from the shop just a few blocks away.

As Panahi’s film unfolds in real time, Razieh loses the money twice and attempts to get it back. This is a film that swells with humanity. Panahi’s camera is an empathetic one, and Mohammadkhani’s performance is so realistic that it hardly feels like one. You never lose sense of how important the money is to Razieh, nor how vital she sees her quest to get the goldfish and bring the change back to her mother.

Director: Jafar Panahi

Mina (Mina Mohammad Khani) waits for her mother to pick her up after school, but her mother doesn’t come. Left alone on the busy streets of Tehran, she tries to find her way home on her own – a considerable challenge for a young child who doesn’t know her address. Along the way, she encounters a variety of people, from compassionate types who become invested in her safe journey home to those who walk straight past her without a second thought. 

Panahi is not a filmmaker interested in casting judgment on his characters, allowing events to unfold naturally. He is, however, hugely interested in cinema from a formal perspective, particularly when it comes to playing with our expectations. There’s an authenticity to The Mirror, which is suddenly and deliberately called into question at the halfway point. Panahi’s film reflects the realistic journey of a young girl while simultaneously questioning cinema’s role in holding a mirror to society.

Director: Majid Majidi

Majid Majidi’s Children of Heaven is simple in concept, yet profound in execution. Nine-year-old Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) picks up his six-year-old sister Zahra’s (Bahare Seddiqi) shoes from a cobbler but loses them on the way home. Distraught, and knowing his father will not be able to afford a new pair, Ali plots with Zahra to share the shoes, meeting every day at midday to swap. There may be a solution: a race where the prize is a new pair of sneakers. Acutely aware of the realities of poverty, Children of Heaven has flashes of magical realism that add an indelible sense of wonder.

Becoming the first Iranian film to be nominated for the Oscar for best foreign language film, Children of Heaven is striking for its complete lack of cynicism. Instead, it radiates a deep understanding of the pure-heartedness of children. Majidi’s film beautifully balances the innocence of childhood with the struggles of the everyday. 

Director: Majid Majidi

Majidi’s follow-up to Children of Heaven, The Colour of Paradise may have a more optimistic title, but it’s considerably darker in tone. Mohammad (Mohsen Ramezani) is a young boy attending a school for the blind in Tehran. As summer approaches, he’s to return home to his father Hashem (Hossein Mahjoub). But Hashem, a widower, has been impacted by the difficulties of raising a child with additional needs and is deeply ashamed that his son is blind. 

While that may sound like difficult viewing, Majidi’s film is beautifully realised, particularly when observing Mohammad’s intrinsic love of nature or his relationship with his grandmother (Salameh Feyzi). The Color of Paradise dramatises how one person’s innate sense of being clashes with another’s overwhelming shame. It’s an essential reminder of how the only way to live a fulfilling life is for yourself, regardless of what others deem you capable of.

Director: Asghar Farhadi

The first Iranian film to win an Academy Award, Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation is a powerful examination of the breakdown of a marriage. Simin (Leila Hatami) wants to move her family out of Iran, but her husband Nader (Peyman Moadi) wants to stay and care for his father, who has Alzheimer’s. Unable to move past this issue, Simin files for divorce – which is promptly rejected by the court on insufficient grounds. 

Here is a family drama so engaging and intense that it often feels like a white-knuckle thriller. A Separation is a thoughtful investigation of the divorce process specific to Iran, yet its complex morals feel universal. The intimate, bracing story is effectively complemented by Mahmoud Kalari’s precise cinematography and Hayedeh Safiyari’s rapid editing. This is a film with characters who are deeply, intrinsically human. It casts a hypnotic spell from its first scene, which is all shot in one long take.

Director: Asghar Farhadi

The Past is a riveting study of family, homeland and identity. Farhadi’s film follows Ahmad (Ali Mosaffa) who, after four years away, returns to finalise his divorce from Marie (Bérénice Bejo, who won best actress at Cannes). It’s there he forges a kinship with Marie’s daughter from a previous marriage, Lucie (Pauline Burlet), which threatens to reveal a long-gestating family secret that poses a threat to their already fragile relationships. 

Farhadi’s script expertly pulls back the layers revealing one surprise after another while deepening our understanding of Ahmad and Marie. Bejo is particularly magnetising here, lending a natural, lived-in quality to Marie. This dense yet accessible drama is about a family unit interrogating its own existence. The shadows of its past loom over the present, and the uncovered truths have crushing consequences

Director: Saeed Roustayi

Saeed Roustayi’s gritty film tackles the drug crisis in Iran through the eyes of an indigent family barely keeping their heads above water. There’s a sense of desperation in every frame as Somayeh (Parinaz Izadyar), the family’s youngest daughter, is getting married to an Afghan man, meaning she’ll be leaving her family behind for a new life in Afghanistan. But there’s a fear that consumes Somayeh: how can she move on when her family are in such disarray?

Roustayi’s dialogue is rapid; characters often speak over each other in their frustration, anger and desperation. Never feeling preachy or like an after-school special, Life and a Day instead delivers a raw, almost documentary-like observation of a family on the margins.

Director: Hassan Nazer

Opening with a dedication to Iranian masters Abbas Kiarostami, Asghar Farhadi, Majid Majidi and Jafar Panahi, Hassan Nazer’s Winners is a celebration of the power of cinema. The Oscar awarded to Farhadi for his 2016 film The Salesman has gone missing through a series of happy accidents, only to be discovered in a provincial town by Yahya (Parsa Maghami), a nine-year-old cinephile, and his friend Leyla (Helia Mohammadkhani). 

The kids spend their days scavenging for scrap metal for Saber (Hossein Abedini), owner of the local scrapyard. In addition to classics such as Cinema Paradiso (1988) and Goodfellas (1990), Nazer’s film contains numerous references to Iranian cinema, making both a taxi and goldfish (key tropes in Iranian film) key parts of the story. It’s not afraid to tackle the harsh realities its characters face, but it makes movies themselves feel like pure magic.

Director: Mohammad Rasoulof

Amid immense political turmoil, Iman (Missagh Zareh) is in crisis. As an investigating judge in Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, he’s becoming increasingly paranoid over the growing protests against the establishment provoked by the mysterious death of a young woman. His paranoia follows him home, as he believes his wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and daughters Sana (Setareh Maleki) and Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) are keeping secrets from him. When his gun goes missing, the family he once counted on become suspects.

Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a riveting drama about a family coming apart at the seams. Rasoulof portrays how secrets infest and infect the strongest bonds, and how generational divides fester growing resentments. The film twists and turns as it shifts from a gripping family drama to a shocking cat-and-mouse game.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig is in cinemas from 7 February.