I’ll give you two reasons to run to the Iranian Film Festival Australia (IFFA) this week.

One is the opening night film, the Australian premiere of Reza Mirkarimi’s astonishing Castle of Dreams (Winner, Best Feature Film, 2019 Shanghai International Film Festival), a devastating drama about family, separation and keeping one’s promises that gloriously exemplifies the poetic and emotional power for which Iranian cinema is revered.

If you do not fall in love with Niousha Alipour as the turtle loving lamb faced Sara you have ice in your veins, not blood, a stone where your heart ought to be. This compelling road movie runs the gamut of emotion, love hate, jealousy and hope, a babe’s eye view of adult folly.

CASTLE OF DREAMS packs more emotional punch and incident in its nifty ninety minutes than many movies that aspire to tug the heartstrings and examine the fallout of parental breakup on the children. That’s because Mirkarimi knows how to skate on sentimentality without breaking the narrative ice that frosts family breakdowns, keeping the chill whilst keeping us warm.

Second reason, Tehran: City of Love, which arrives direct from the BFI London Film Festival to also make its Australian premiere. The latest film from on-the-rise director Ali Jaberansari is a triptych that follows an ex-bodybuilding champ who develops feelings for the young man he’s training, a shy cosmetic surgery receptionist who has body image issues, and a singer who makes a living singing at funerals but turns to weddings in the hope of finding love.

Tehran: City of Love is a delicate examination of disenfranchisement, desperation and the delicacies of sexuality and unrequited love.

So often in the media, Tehran is shown as a city of hate, strife, war and turmoil. TEHRAN: CITY OF LOVE shows us that the city and its citizens are not all that different to Sydney, with the pitfalls of passion and the search for companionship.

The full program can be found at iffa.net.au
IFFA FESTIVAL DATES: Sydney · 31 Oct-6 Nov · Event Cinemas Top Ryde