5 Streaming Movies to Help Understand Iran Now |
Americans who do not closely follow international news were surprised to learn on the morning of Feb. 28 that the country was, while not officially decreed so by Congress, at war with Iran. Unlike the invasion of Iraq, which featured months of buildup, this one—as with the decision to yoink Nicolás Maduro out of Venezuela—came with limited preselling. (Oh, for the days of White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who, in 2002, uttered the notorious phrase, “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.” At least those guys bothered to wonder how the U.S. public would react to a major military offensive.)
Luckily, there is a surfeit of reading one can do right here at Foreign Policy to understand the context, aims, and potential outcomes of the current conflagration. But to understand the human aspect, sometimes straight facts aren’t enough. I find there’s no better way to understand a culture, short of visiting, than immersing oneself in movies from that culture. And Iran, it just so happens, has one of the more robust film industries, and has been exporting its best work to festival and “art house” audiences for years.
Americans who do not closely follow international news were surprised to learn on the morning of Feb. 28 that the country was, while not officially decreed so by Congress, at war with Iran. Unlike the invasion of Iraq, which featured months of buildup, this one—as with the decision to yoink Nicolás Maduro out of Venezuela—came with limited preselling. (Oh, for the days of White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who, in 2002, uttered the notorious phrase, “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.” At least those guys bothered to wonder how the U.S. public would react to a major military offensive.)
Luckily, there is a surfeit of reading one can do right here at Foreign Policy to understand the context, aims, and potential outcomes of the current conflagration. But to understand the human aspect, sometimes straight facts aren’t enough. I find there’s no better way to understand a culture, short of visiting, than immersing oneself in movies from that culture. And Iran, it just so happens, has one of the more robust film industries, and has been exporting its best work to festival and “art house” audiences for years.
Streaming media platforms make it even easier to see these films. When I was younger, the only depictions of Iran I saw were fearmongering pictures like Not Without My Daughter, in which the all-American Sally Field marries Alfred Molina (who plays an Iranian, despite being a British actor of Spanish and Italian descent), who seems like a caring father at first, but reveals himself to be a barbarian when he tricks his family into visiting Iran and then essentially holds them hostage. The film is “based on a true story” but you can watch the trailer to see how bluntly jingoistic this is. Thankfully there are other options today.
To come up with a short list of essential contemporary Iranian films is no easy task, as there are so many to choose from. This collection (and notes on where to stream them) offers a good overview from an array of directors with full resumes worthy of exploration.
I decided not to include It Was Just an Accident (currently streaming on Hulu), the 2025 Cannes Film Festival winner currently up for two Academy Awards (best international feature film and........