Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Gharaei’s “Falling House” has sold to a raft of international territories following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Paris-based company Paradise City Sales has closed a first batch of deals with Jokers Films for France, Wanted Cinema for Italy and Karma Films for Spain, with negotiations underway in several other territories. The deals come on the heels of a strong reception in Venice, where “Falling House” emerged as one of the buzzy titles in the Horizons section.
Paradise City Sales has also unveiled the film’s first teaser, offering a glimpse at Gharaei’s tense family drama set against the mounting social and political pressures of contemporary Iran. Written and directed by Gharaei, “Falling House” follows a modest family living on the outskirts of Tehran whose home is facing imminent demolition as part of a sprawling redevelopment project. At the center of the story is Rashid, a prison guard who has been suspended from his job after being accused of corruption.
His already precarious situation deteriorates when he discovers that his eldest daughter, Ensi, is secretly planning to leave Iran to pursue a career as a model. As bulldozers close in on the family home, tensions escalate inside it, with Rashid increasingly turning what should be a place of refuge into a prison of his own making. The film stars Farhad Aslani, Laleh Marzban, Rima Raminfar and Elena Khakbazan.
The filmmaker has described “Falling House” as a story about “lost freedom” and about choices buried beneath fear and an imposed destiny. He made the movie within Iran’s restrictive censorship environment. It marks his follow up to “Blockage,” a 2017 drama that portrayed contemporary Iranian society and won best film at Busan before going on to play at Rotterdam and Munich.
The Jokers Films described “Falling House” as part of a tradition of Iranian protest cinema, drawing parallels with the work of Mohammad Rasoulof, Maryam Moghadam and Saeed Roustaee. Uschi Feldges and Ansgar Frerich of Basis Berlin Filmproduktion and Solmaz Azizi of Zentropa Germany serve as co-producers.
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