The Persian Version

A child of mixed parents, from iran and murrica, leila doesn't really fit in with either culture. She's a lesbian, which is hard enough to deal with, much less when you have conservative parents. Her mother says she is shaming her father and grandfather by living this way, but as leila points out, those are just excuses... it's really mom herself who feels ashamed of her daughter. Lots of narration, which gets annoying. The main story is that dad just got a new heart, and must have total relaxation. This puts pressure on the rest of the family to bring home the bacon. Leila has even more surprises coming her way! Will she ever get to live how and where she dreamed? It's pretty good! Interesting to see things from another perspective. Although we didn't really need to spend so much time on the details of her mother's marriages and pregnancies. It's long enough already! Could have cut out about twenty minutes or more. Written and directed by maryam keshavarz, this definitely feels like someone's actual story.

The Persian Version centers on a mother-daughter relationship, while walking through Iranian-American culture and history, family secrets, trauma, and love. While engaging, this disjointed movie starts as a comedy and then gradually amps up its depth as a drama. While the comedy and the drama are both worthwhile stories, they sit imperfectly together in this film, effectively two separate movies. And yet, for its two narratives, The Persian Version serves a love letter for the strength and resilience of immigrant women and their daughters, especially the fierce Iranian women still fighting for their rights today.

Based on the trailer, I was expecting this film to be a light, slapstick comedy. But while it had some good laughs and humor, it is actually a very deep and layered emotional story that had me tearing up multiple times. It's an intensely personal story, focused on the tensions in a mother-daughter relationship in a cross-generational/cultural divide. As someone born in American to immigrant parents, one of the things I really appreciated about the story is how it really gives the audience a deep view into the life of the mother as a young person and how she grew up to be the way she is now, shedding much light on why she deals with her daughter the way she does...something that I think a lot of films about immigrant families kind of gloss over. Highly recommended!

I really liked the movie. It made me laugh and cry, and I enjoyed every moment. When it ended, I missed the characters. The story felt familiar, like something from my family. The family parties from the 80s and 90s were spot-on and brought back memories. The way they showed different times in the story was cool, but I got a bit confused when it went back to the 60s. I wanted to know more about how the husband survived. Also, I didn't get why a guy from a village would go all the way to the US. Despite that, the movie had great characters and showed parts of Iranian culture and strong Persian women. It's a perfect example for other movies that women's rights and support doesn't mean picturing all men as evil monsters or negative.

I quite enjoyed this intergenerational story of an Iranian immigrant family trying to piece together their versions of the American dream and the misunderstandings that happen in between. It is essentially about the uneasy relationship between a mother and daughter; the rest of it often feels like informational dumps on Iranian culture (and heritage), but told through a lighter lens. Even in that regard, the film is fairly fun because it's either showing us vibrant frames, tackling a particular emotion, or making us chuckle. Some of it feels like flab, especially the scandal part of the mother's backstory, and it ideally should've gotten better treatment at the edit desk.

It makes all the sense in the world to appreciate certain performances, especially those of Niousha Noor, Chiara Stella, and Layla Mohammadi. While the two distinct labor room scenes have their significance plotwise, I wondered if there was any other way to put the same emotional messaging across, without them feeling repetitive. The second one comes off a beautiful moment of reconciliation indeed, and that's one reason why I wouldn't dive too deep into it. Also, the fourth-wall-breaking moments go just a tad too far. Regardless of however you perceive all of it, there's some fun to be had!