Animated Drama TEHRAN TABOO Has US Theatrical Premiere This February

Kino Lorber is pleased to announce the New York theatrical premiere of Ali Soozandeh's TEHRAN TABOO, an animated dramatic feature that juggles multiple stories to explore the sexual double-standard behind the hypocrisy of life in contemporary Iran. Living in exile in Germany since age 25, Iranian-born Soozandeh cannily uses animation to solve the problem of not being able to film in Tehran.

Set to premiere on Wednesday, February 14, at New York's Film Forum, TEHRAN TABOO also opens in San Francisco, CA, on March 2 (Roxie Theatre) and in Los Angeles, CA, on March 9 (at Laemmle's Town Center 5 and Music Hall 3). Other national dates are listed below. The film had its world premiere at the prestigious Cannes Critics' Week before segueing to a competition slot at the Annecy Intl. Animated Film Festival.

Blending multiple narratives into a complex picture of contemporary life in Iran's most populous city, TEHRAN TABOO follows a young woman in need of an operation to "restore" her virginity; a divorce judge (in the Islamic Revolutionary Court) who extorts favors from a prostitute; a pregnant woman desperate to work for a living so she may live independently; and young women (purportedly virgins) being sold to Dubai for large sums of money.

The result is a complicated portrait of a social order in which women are at the bottom rung of a ladder built on religion, the law, and plain old misogyny.

TEHRAN TABOO (2016, 96 mins.) Written and directed by Ali Soozandeh. Produced by Frank Geiger, Ali Samadi Ahadi, Mark Fencer & Armin Hofmann. Cinematography by Martin Gschlact. Edited by Frank Geiger & Andrea Mertens. Music by Ali N. Askin. Art direction by Ali Soozandeh. VFX Supervisors: Ali Samadi Ahadi & Christian "Pingo" Schiffler. Head of Digital Painting: Alireza Darvish. Lead Shading/Texturing Artist: Carlos Cursaro. With Elmira Rifizadeh (Pari), Zar Amir Ebrahimi (Sara), Arash Marandi (Babak) & Bilal Yasar (Elias). Germany / France / Austria. In Farsi with English subtitles. A Kino Lorber release.

Watch the trailer here