(MA) Directed by Maryam Keshavarz

Maryam Keshavarz is an Iranian American who grew up in Brooklyn, spending her summers with her cousins in Iran. As a teenager, she compared her relatively privileged lifestyle with the restrictions on everything Western in her cousins’ lives. She also became aware that clubs with drinking and dancing were accessible to wealthier citizens, and banned music and films could also be had. In her film, two Tehran teenagers, Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) and Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) are still at school but can throw off their scarves and indulge in subversive activities including taking illicit drugs. The two young women also explore private passions but Atafeh can afford to be rebellious because her wealthy father is in a position to rescue her when she is caught by the morality police. For Shireen it is a different matter. Filmed in Beirut, Keshavarz’s first feature film screens at Joondalup Pines 13-18 March.

–Lezly Herbert