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Iranian cinema has won more major festival prizes than almost any other national cinema of its size, and many of its best films were made in and about Tehran. Watching them before you visit, or after you have moved here, is one of the most enjoyable ways to understand how the city looks, sounds and argues with itself. Here are ten films worth tracking down, most of which can be bought on disc or streamed in the UK.
Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997). A man drives around the dusty hills on the edge of Tehran looking for someone to help him with a terrible plan. Almost the whole film takes place inside his car, and it is quietly devastating. It shared the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1997. Find Taste of Cherry on Amazon.
Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1990). Kiarostami restaged the true story of a Tehran man who pretended to be the director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, using the real people involved to play themselves. It blurs documentary and fiction so well that many critics call it the director’s masterpiece. Find Close-Up on Amazon.
Where Is the Friend’s House? (Abbas Kiarostami, 1987). A small boy in a northern village tries to return his friend’s exercise book before the friend gets into trouble at school. It is simple, tense and full of the zigzag hill paths that became one of Kiarostami’s signatures. Find Where Is the Friend’s House? on Amazon.
A Separation (Asghar Farhadi, 2011). A middle-class Tehran couple split up, and a decision about who will look after an ageing father spirals into a court case. Farhadi’s script is as gripping as any thriller. It won the Golden Bear in Berlin and the Oscar for best foreign language film. Find A Separation on Amazon.
The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi, 2016). Two actors rehearsing Death of a Salesman move into a new Tehran flat, and an attack on the wife turns the husband’s search for justice into something darker. It brought Farhadi his second Oscar. Find The Salesman on Amazon.
The Circle (Jafar Panahi, 2000). Panahi follows a chain of women through the streets of Tehran, each passing the story to the next, as they try to get by in a system stacked against them. It won the Golden Lion in Venice. Find The Circle on Amazon.
Taxi Tehran (Jafar Panahi, 2015). Banned from filmmaking, Panahi drove a taxi around the city with cameras on the dashboard and picked up a stream of passengers, including his outspoken young niece. It is funny, warm and pointed, and it won the Golden Bear. Find Taxi Tehran on Amazon.
Children of Heaven (Majid Majidi, 1997). A brother loses his little sister’s only pair of shoes, and the two share his trainers in secret while he trains for a race with a pair of new shoes as the prize. It was nominated for an Oscar and is the best film on this list to watch with children. Find Children of Heaven on Amazon.
Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, 2007). The animated version of Satrapi’s memoir follows a girl growing up in Tehran through the revolution and the war with Iraq. It won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Watch the film and then read the graphic novel.
There Is No Evil and The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof). Rasoulof’s four-part There Is No Evil won the Golden Bear in 2020, and The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which follows a judge’s family in Tehran during the 2022 protests, won a special prize at Cannes in 2024. Both were made in secret and are tough, important viewing.
Seeing films in Tehran. If you are here, our review of Law of Tehran covers one of the most successful Iranian crime films of recent years, and the city’s cinemas, from the old picture houses on Enghelab and Lalehzar to the multiplexes in the big malls, are an inexpensive night out. For more reading on the country behind the films, see our list of books about Iran.
