Tehran: City of Love

A new angle to Iranian cinema, witty, funny and smart. Mina and Vahid did incredible acting. The movie nicely brings together the conservative aspects of Iranian culture with the one of the modern Tehran. A real laugh out loud movie...

Iranian writer-director Ali Jaberansari's bittersweet tale about searching for romantic fulfilment in contemporary Tehran cuts between three disillusioned middle-aged individuals: an overweight salon receptionist (Forough Ghajabagli) who catfishes male customers, a poker-faced former bodybuilding champion (Amir Hessam Bakhtiari) and a glum funeral singer (Mehdi Saki) who's broken up with his fiancée. Unfolding in a milieu of private gyms, designer cafés and cosmetic procedures, Tehran: City Of Love possesses a deadpan humour reminiscent of Aki Kaurismäki, while the precisely framed static compositions convey how stifled its characters feel within their lonely lives.

Enjoyed the movie throughout. The search for connection was very well captured in all three characters! And the ridiculous situations the characters (especially Mina) find themselves in are hilarious. Truly fresh and original.

I had the chance to see it on a film festival. After seeing some great and dramatic Eastern movies in the past years like Teheran Taboo (2015?) etc I thought it's going to be something like these. Huge disappointing. Not funny at any point, the characters do thinks that makes nonsense, it also has a boring story and it's actually about nothing. Wasted 2 hours of my life.