Not only is this the case for films about immigrant experiences, but Motavalli thinks the same goes for Iranian films. He grew up with Iranian movies, and so was desperate to make something in Farsi, but was aware of how often Iranian stories are politicised. “I support those films, but when it came to what I wanted to make, I felt like I didn’t really have anything particularly original to say about the politics,” he says. “But I felt like I had something to show about the mundane, overlooked problems that a lot of immigrant families face.
One of the challenges of the film was casting; Motavali didn’t start with a network of Iranian actors in the UK, so he enlisted casting agency Shaheen Baig (a giant in the industry) to find the Iranian actors. When Alipour first read for the part of Masoud, he immediately connected the character to his own father. After that, so much of their conversations were about the men they had both seen growing up: “how they adapt, hide shame behind pride, struggle to communicate and wrestle with who they’re supposed to be in a new place,” he says. “He intuitively understood the character.”