Welcome to a beautifully animated looking-glass world.

| Jun 2, 2020

Under Soozandeh's knowing and fiery direction, Tehran Taboo becomes an intriguing and often exhilarating work.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 3, 2019

Iranian film-makers, more than anyone else it seems, have mastered the art of whole-of-society stories. This racy, funny, thought-provoking film, made in 2017, is one example.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 10, 2019

The lyrical animation, and especially an expressive use of shadows which illuminates emotion in the actors' faces, makes it all appear to be unfolding in a woozy dream.

| Jan 26, 2019

A thought-provoking, attractive exploration of the social and sexual restrictions imposed in modern Iran.

| Jan 16, 2019

This is an animated film made for adults, which perfectly captures dilemmas and character decisions without the need to become graphic (unless when really needed).

| Jan 8, 2019

From the opening POV shots inside a car driving through a bleak and snowy Tehran, Soozandeh establishes a mood of bitter melancholy, a feeling only heightened by the rotoscoping technique, in which animation is traced over live-action footage.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 21, 2018

A striking debut feature from Soozandeh. Very excited to see what he comes up with next.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 8, 2018

This is fearless, potent storytelling.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 7, 2018

The immediate consolation that Tehran Taboo offers is aesthetic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 7, 2018

The film get its transgressive thrill from the collision of ancient theocratic authoritarianism and 21st-century licentiousness.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 5, 2018

[An] impressive debut feature...

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 4, 2018

The ace in the film's style pack is the animation. Without it, we might feel we're watching just another docudrama about life and death in fanatical Islam.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 3, 2018

A funny, honest, lively film... And the animation is beautiful.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 3, 2018

This might be a story painted in broad strokes, but Tehran Taboo hums with powerful, difficult truths that are distilled in the character of Elias.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 1, 2018

"Tehran Taboo" is enlightening and engaging. It manages to be both tragic and wryly funny as it explores social, cultural and political issues of modern Iran.

| Apr 12, 2018

Happily, Soozandah is more humanist than polemicist, so that what follows is less about the system than the people navigating it.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 6, 2018

These tales are brimming with urgency and conflict and serve as powerful reminders of the liberties and autonomy those of us living in the free world too often take for granted.

| Mar 23, 2018

Amid the repression and pain there are some transcendent moments, some sweet shards of joy and leisure. The thickly lined bodies join together, come apart, fly or fall.

| Original Score: B | Mar 23, 2018

Some of the more dramatic developments feel heavy-handed. But the movie, which touches on everything from divorce to porn to abortion to illegal satellite dishes, is socially substantial and highly enjoyable female-focused...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 2, 2018