Tehran Taboo

The lives of three strong-willed women and a young musician cross paths in Tehran’s schizophrenic society where sex, corruption and drugs coexist with strict religious laws and patriarchal traditions. In this bustling modern metropolis, breaking taboos can be a means of personal emancipation, especially for women. By using animation, the film offers just enough distance to explore provocative subject matter without salaciousness, while the rotoscoping of real actors injects authentic human emotion and reminds the viewer that what is depicted is very real. In this way expat Iranian filmmaker Ali Soozandeh skates a thin edge to bring to life a story that would be difficult to tell by any other means.