Leila's Brothers

''Leila’s Brothers'' () is a 2022 Iranian drama film directed, written and co-produced by Saeed Roustayi, starring Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Saeed Poursamimi and Payman Maadi. In April 2022, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

At 40 years old, Leila has spent her whole life taking care of her parents and her four brothers. The family argues constantly and is seemingly crushed by debts, caught in a country with a huge economic crisis and unbelievable inflations as a result of the US economic sanctions on the country. As her brothers are trying to make ends meet, Leila formulates a plan: to start a family business that would save them from poverty. Looking for capital to fund the costs of a storefront in a soon-to-be converted mall bathroom, they are surprised by their father, Esmail, who in his ambition to become family patriarch wants to gift 40 gold coins at a wedding, while he, cares nothing about the ambitions of his well-grown children. However, Leila in cahoots with her three other brothers tricks Alireza who is supposed to present the coins on behalf of his father by giving him an empty box. The father is crowned patriarch just to be demoted and replaced by a rival, shortly after it turns out that Alireza does not have coins to give. The father claims he took out a mortgage to buy the coins and the family will be homeless if he doesn't get back the money. Alireza feeling used and fearing for the roof over their head incites his brothers against Leila's plans, they decide to give back their father the money to pay the mortgage. Inflation and rising prices however crush their plans making it near impossible to get enough money for the coins or to be able to buy them back leaving them ever closer to financial ruin. In a final reveal, however, it turns out that the father did not mortgage the house at all but had a secret bank account, living in filth and letting his children suffer while hoarding cash, from which he funded the coins. Soon after this revelation the father dies during a young girl's birthday party, which only Alireza notices leaving him in shock surrounded by joyous celebrations.

Cast

* Taraneh Alidoosti as Leila Jourablou
* Navid Mohammadzadeh as Alireza Jourablou
* Saeed Poursamimi as Esmail Jourablou
* Payman Maadi as Manouchehr Jourablou
* Mohammad Alimohammadi as Farhad Jourablou
* Nayereh Farahani as The mother
* Mehdi Hosseininia as Bayram
* Farhad Aslani as Parviz Jourablou

Release

The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival which was held from 17 to 28 May 2022.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 10 reviews are positive for the film, with an average rating of 6/10. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 5 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".

Accolades

Controversy

Actors' sexual assaults charges

The two actors in this film, Saeed Poursamimi and Farhad Aslani, were accused of sexually assaulting Katayoun Riahi and Somayyeh Mirshamsi. Both charges were after filming.

While Taraneh Alidoosti, another actress in this film, is one of the women following the complaints of abused women in the cinema.

After Aslani was charged by the assistant director Somayyeh Mirshamsi, Alidoosti announced on her Instagram that the rest of the cast won't stand by the accused at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. At the festival, Aslani did not go to Cannes.

After the cast appeared on the red carpet, the famous actress, Katayoun Riahi, posted the photo of Poursamimi at Cannes with a red cross on him and mentioning the Iranian page of ''me too movement'' in her Instagram story.

The next day, she posted on Instagram that she had been sexually assaulted by him 25 years ago.

On June 1, a retired actress, Ladan Tabatabaei, announced in a live stream on Instagram that she had also been verbally abused by Poursamimi.

Iranian government's response

The Cinema Organization of Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance expressed dissatisfaction with the film as cast members made remarks critical of the Iranian government at Cannes, and Mohammadzadeh kissed his wife, Fereshteh Hosseini, on the red carpet. On 1 June 2022, minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili said the film may not be allowed to be released in Iran since it screened at Cannes without the government's approval, which he said was against the law. On 22 June 2022, Esmaili said the organization had officially banned the film. On 15 August 2023, the film's director, Saeed Roustaee, and its producer Javad Noruzbegi were both sentenced to six months in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran for screening the film without approval. As part of the sentence, which is served for nine days while the rest will be suspended over five years, Saeed Roustaee and Javad Noruzbegi have to take a 24-hour course about "creating movies aligned with national interests and national morality".

References

External links

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{{Saeed Roustayi

Films directed by Saeed Roustayi
Iranian drama films
2020s Persian-language films
2022 drama films
2022 films