{"id":53220,"date":"2025-09-09T15:48:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53220\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T15:48:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T15:48:08","slug":"golshifteh-farahani-talks-exile-asghar-farhadi-alpha-extraction-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/53220\/","title":{"rendered":"Golshifteh Farahani Talks Exile; Asghar Farhadi; Alpha, Extraction 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tClose to two decades have passed since Golshifteh Farahani<\/a> was forced to flee Iran<\/a> after her appearance alongside Leonardo Di Caprio in Ridley Scott\u2019s Middle East thriller Body of Lies angered the Islamic Regime authorities in her native country.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe left behind a successful acting career and a body of award-winning Farsi language work which included Dariush Mehrjui\u2019s The Pear Tree, Azizollah Hamidnezhad\u2019s Iran-Iraq war drama The Tear of the Cold, Mohammad Ali Talebi\u2019s The Wall and Asghar Farhadi<\/a>\u2019s About Elly.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actress rebuilt her life and career outside of Iran, racking up 40 features since, with credits ranging from European productions such as Mia Hansen-L\u00f8ve\u2019s French club scene drama Eden, Hiner Saleem\u2019s Kurdish drama My Sweet Pepper Land and William Tell to U.S. works including Jim Jarmusch\u2019s Paterson as well as film and TV franchises and Invasion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tFarahani has often talked about the pain of exile, likening being separated from her native country to losing a limb. <\/p>\n

\n\tHowever, in a sign that the actress is now equally at home in her adoptive country of France<\/a>, she is presiding over the jury this week of the Deauville American Film Festival<\/a>, which also honored her with a career award over the weekend.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe is joined by an illustrious line-up of French talent including screenwriter Thomas Cailley (The Animal Kingdom), actress Eye Ha\u00efdara (C\u2019est La Vie), writer and director Katell Quill\u00e9v\u00e9r\u00e9 (Along Came Love), actress Philip\u00adpine Leroy-Beaulieu (Emily in Paris), Vincent Macaigne (Arco), choreographer Benjamin Millepied and \u00c9milie Tronche (Samuel).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I got this proposition, I was really honored and I didn\u2019t hesitate for a second,\u201d Farahani tells Deadline. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s especially beautiful because it\u2019s a French festival devoted to American independent cinema\u2026 it shows how there\u2019s no frontier in the world of art and cinema.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSoon I will have spent half of my life outside of Iran but I remain Iranian. I travel with saffron; celebrate Nowruz and the fire festival of Chaharshanbe Suri, and take Hafez with me wherever I go,\u201d she continues, referring to the 14th century lyrical Persian poet. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m also French after all these years of swimming in this ocean of France and Europe, in this country and this continent and the world in general. The more I travel, the more I realize how close we all are. You realize how we are all brothers and sisters and we\u2019re all one family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFarahani has just come off the set of Paris-based Afghan filmmaker Chabname Zariab\u2019s Bells of Kabul (Les Clochettes de Kaboul). <\/p>\n

\n\tSet against the backdrop of Afghanistan in 2021 as the Taliban take control, the storyline revolves around a young widow working in the kitchen of a so-called Bacha Bazi house, clubs where young male dancers perform for older men. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a tiny movie done with the minimum that any movie can be done with today and I\u2019m so happy I did it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a first movie. My intuition told me I needed to do it. I always go with my gut feeling, my heart, whether it\u2019s Jim Jarmusch\u2019s Paterson, or Extraction or a small movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBells of Kabul marked Farahani\u2019s first shoot in nine months following a breather after Julia Ducournau\u2019s Cannes 2025 Palme d\u2019Or contender Alpha, taking inspiration from the early days of the AIDS pandemic.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAlpha<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMandarin Cinema<\/p>\n

\n\tFarahani co-starred as a doctor caring for people suffering from a mystery virus that turns them to stone, whose wayward teenage daughter Alpha flirts with the illness after she gets a tattoo at a party. In the backdrop, Amin, her troubled addict brother, played by Tahar Rahim, floats in and out of their lives. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAlpha was very heavy on me,\u201d says Farahani. \u201cIt was not an easy movie to do. Especially because my character had to bring Tahar\u2019s character back to life maybe five times\u2026 every time it was exhausting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe acknowledges the critical division over the film, which is Ducournau\u2019s third feature after Raw and Palme d\u2019Or winner Titane.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI belong to the camp that really loves it. It\u2019s about understanding that Tahar\u2019s character is a trauma. If you don\u2019t connect to that, then maybe it\u2019s confusing,\u201d says Farahani. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s a masterpiece. You don\u2019t see many films with this sort of director\u2019s stamp. Julia is clearly behind every scene\u2026 I defend Alpha to my core.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tExtraction and Invasion questions marks <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tAlongside the theatrical screen release of Alpha in France in August, Farahani has also just hit the small screen worldwide, reprising her role of Aneesha Malik in the third season of Steven Kinberg and David Weil\u2019s sci-fi series Invasion.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actress says she does not know whether Apple TV+ will greenlight a fourth season.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith these platforms, you never know, suddenly they want to do it, suddenly they don\u2019t. I guess they\u2019re waiting to see the reaction to this season,\u201d says Farahani.<\/p>\n

\n\tOther U.S. productions potentially on the horizon include a third movie in the Extraction franchise, in which Farahani plays Nik Khan, sidekick to Chris Hemsworth\u2019s mercenary protagonist Tyler Rake.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey contacted me just recently saying that AGBO is thinking about Extraction 3, but I have no idea. For me, thinking about tomorrow is hard, when they talk about next April, it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, my god, am I going to be on Earth?\u2019\u2026 so, I don\u2019t know, but I do love doing action movies because it\u2019s like preparing for the Olympics. It\u2019s one of the reasons I love doing these extreme action movies, they\u2019re extreme workouts to the core, and I love that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey were also talking about a spin-off of my character\u2026 but one thing I\u2019ve learned in life as an exile, is not to think about anything that is not happening yet,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\n\tReconnecting with Farsi<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPrior to Alpha, Farahani was on set with exiled compatriots Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Mina Kavani for Israeli director Eran Riklis\u2019 Reading Lolita In Tehran<\/a>, which is adapted from Iranian writer Azar Nafisi\u2019s autobiographical bestselling book.<\/p>\n

\n\tFarahani played the protagonist teacher who encourages her female students to read banned western literature in revolutionary Iran. It was her first role in Farsi and related to her native country since she fled.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI avoided roles related to Iran for a long time. Partly because when I left Iran and went to L.A., I was getting offered a lot of stereotypical Middle East roles and characters who were terrorists,\u201d says Farahani.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t want to get put in this box\u2026 I decided that I would never sell my soul and that I would rather play my instrument on the street, than work on projects that I didn\u2019t believe in. So for 17 years, I didn\u2019t do any movies related to Iran, and I did more than 40 movies in that period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe reveals that when Riklis first contacted her for the role, she said yes in the belief that he would never get the project off the ground, but admits that the experience was liberating.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was so beautiful. I realized that when I act in French, English, Hindi, or other languages, it\u2019s like I\u2019m dialing on one of those old black phones\u2026 in Farsi, it was like I was using Bluetooth\u2026 it was just so easy with everything flowing out of me. I didn\u2019t even need to work on the dialogs, it was like I downloaded them just by looking at them,\u201d she recounts.<\/p>\n

\n\tFarahani is now open to doing other projects in Farsi, and dreams of a day when she will be able to return to Iran to work with the new generation of directors.<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving watched and supported Iran\u2019s Woman Life Freedom<\/a> protests, sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini in September 2022, from afar, the actress says she is in awe of young filmmakers who have defied the authorities to make feature films on their own terms.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey\u2019re making movies on iPhone that are incredible. What\u2019s\u00a0happening today in Iran, just in terms of sociology, needs to be studied. How this happened in that country, this ocean of talent working underground with such passion. It\u2019s a form of existential art, not intellectual, it\u2019s existential. And that is the very core of art,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\n\tFarahani cites Saeed Roustaee as a director who she would like to work with in the future, even though he came into criticism this year for his decision to adhere to government guidelines and shoot women in hijabs for his latest film, the Cannes Palme d\u2019Or contender Woman and Child.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s a very sensitive subject,\u201d says Farahani. \u201cSome people argue that while women cannot sing, men shouldn\u2019t sing either. Then there is another argument about art and the fact people need to be connected to art,\u201d says Farahani.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou could say let\u2019s shut down all the cinemas and stop making films but is this the right way to go, or is it right to do some compromises, as they have done in these years to keep the wheels turning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe actress says she does not have answer but that she errs on the side of keeping art and culture going against the odds. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIranians throughout history have kept the heart of culture and art beating, not only for the 45 years of the Islamic Republic, but for thousands of years. These aren\u2019t our only dictators. We had the Safavid, Arab invaders\u2026 regimes change, but what remains is our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThis attitude also appears to extend towards Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi, of whom Farahani was highly critical in the early days of the Woman Life Freedom protests for his perceived lack of public support for the demonstrations. <\/p>\n

\n\tHe denied suggestions that he was silent and since leaving Iran in 2024 has publicly voiced support for the protests on a number of occasions, and said he will no longer adhere to hijab rules in his films. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAbout Elly<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMemento<\/p>\n

\n\tFarahani and Asghar had a tumultuous parting of the ways after the actress\u2019s persecution by the Iranian authorities in 2008 extended to the banning of Farhadi\u2019s film About Elly, in which she starred. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have a personal background with Asghar, and when I left Iran, the way everything happened was very sad and heartbreaking, but at the same time, he couldn\u2019t do anything. He was caring about the movie, About Elly, which was banned because of me, and he was doing everything he could do to show the movie,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a personal choice of speaking up or not. So to be honest, I can\u2019t judge him, and if I have, maybe it was through some moments of emotional reaction about the past\u2026 I\u2019m not in the place of judging anyone about speaking up or not. What I wish for him, is to continue making incredible movies that move people and I wish him the best to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Close to two decades have passed since Golshifteh Farahani was forced to flee Iran after her appearance alongside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[38959,434,38960,18,117,38961,2220,38962,19,1537,18929,17,38963,38964],"class_list":{"0":"post-53220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-asghar-farhadi","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-deauville-american-film-festival","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-extraction","14":"tag-france","15":"tag-golshifteh-farahani","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-invasion","18":"tag-iran","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-reading-lolita-in-tehran","21":"tag-woman-life-freedom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}