The Persian Version Review – Two Different Movies in One
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
“Of course it is banned in Iran!” my friend exclaimed after looking up the 2023 movie “The Persian Version” online. The story follows the fraught relation of an Iranian-American filmmaker with her fierce, strict mother.
Directed and written by Maryam Keshavarz, “The Persian Version” stars Layla Mohammadi as the protagonist, Leila, who is a rebel by nature. Leila comes out to her family and everybody seems to be accepting of her sexuality except her mother Shireen (Niousha Noor). With a brood of eight brothers, Leila feels her mother doesn’t have any love left over for her, however, a flashback story reveals why Shireen is the way she is.
Leila gets a hilarious introductory scene – she is wearing a hijab, but it’s over a bikini with nothing covering her legs, her own take on the burkini. The first half of “The Persian Version” is super fun, with lots of funny moments, and retro flashbacks of Leila’s visits to Iran as a child with her family. There’s a very Bollywood-like dance sequence in the first half, where everybody dances to a popular English song, playing on a cassette that Leila smuggles from America on her plane.
The cinematography in “The Persian Version” is colorful, fun, and very retro. However, watching it can become quite confusing as the story does not unfold in chronological order. There’s no clear demarcation or transition to help you identify if the events unfolding on your screen are current or flashbacks, except for the parts where the characters are distinctly younger and portrayed by different actors.
Some bits of “The Persian Version” reminded me of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel “Embroideries,” which is a fun book about Iranian women – grandmothers, mothers, aunts, girls – swapping stories about their lives. Leila gets a lot of family tea (secrets) from her sassy grandmother, AKA Mamanjoon (Bella Warda), which also includes a ‘scandal’ that led to her parents fleeing Iran. The second half of the film feels like a completely different story, focusing on a teen Shireen (Chiara Stella) and the ‘scandal’ that occurred when she was living with her doctor husband in a remote village in Iran.
Both Layla Mohammadi and Niousha Noor are beautiful as the mother-daughter duo Leila and Shireen. While Leila’s character feels slightly directionless, her mother Shireen emerges as a strong immigrant woman who steps up to take charge of her large family when her husband is hospitalized and the medical bills threaten to put them on the streets. “The Persian Version” also celebrates the spirit and resilience of immigrants in the face of crisis in a foreign land. However, Maryam Keshavarz tries to jam in so many themes in this 1 hour 47 film that she is unable to do justice to any of them. Leila’s career, dreams, and love life are all half-baked, and ultimately, Shireen emerges as the central character, a young ambitious woman who climbs the ladder of success in her career, all the while taking care of her nine children and an ailing husband. Overall, it’s an entertaining slice of Iranian-American life, which feels like an exaggerated circus at times.
You can rent “The Persian Version” on Prime Video.
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