My Tehran For Sale

My Tehran For Sale

Cast: Marzieh Vafamehr, Amir Chegini, Asha Mehrabi, Mobina Karimi, Mitra Mehraban
Director: Granaz Moussavi
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 96 minutes

Synopsis: The first ever Australian/Iranian feature film collaboration My Tehran For Sale has been selected to have its International Premiere in Official Selection in the Discovery program at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. The Asian Premiere of the film is now announced for October at the Pusan International Film Festival in Korea, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the region. It will also screen at the Vancouver International Film Festival in October before the Australian theatrical release slated for November 2009. German based Media Luna has signed My Tehran For Sale for world sales and will represent the film at Toronto.

Filmed "under the radar" entirely on location in Tehran last year, My Tehran For Sale provides an insight into the lives of a generation of young urban Iranians struggling for cultural freedom. The film centres on Marzieh, a young female actress living in Tehran. When authorities ban her theatre work, like all young people in Iran, she is forced to lead a secret life in order to express herself artistically. In revealing how young Iranian people live behind closed doors, the film brings to the screen never before seen images of modern urban Iran.

Shot on a data camera, the rushes were stored digitally on hard drives and were smuggled out of the country in the producer's backpacks at the end of the shoot. The film was post produced in Adelaide, South Australia.

The film marks the directorial debut of celebrated Iranian poet Granaz Moussavi, now an Australian citizen (who was in Tehran for the June election), and was produced by Cyan Films, a South Australian production company headed up by producers Julie Ryan (Ten Canoes) and Kate Croser. Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi (Nobody Knows About the Persian Cats, Turtles Can Fly) was involved in providing production support on the ground in Iran & also in developing the film in the initial stages, along with Abbas Kiarostami (Ten, A Taste of Cherry).

My Tehran For Sale is a very personal film from Granaz Moussavi 'We have seen the media fabricated side of Iranian people on all screen sizes worldwide, and I wanted to tell my side of the story… a simple story of a bunch of middle class friends in modern contemporary Tehran. The story of everyday resistance in simple and even ordinary ways to seek a little share of happiness and freedom in life.'

Julie Ryan said, "The films' festival announcement and sale to Media Luna are timely given the recent protests in Iran over the June election. More than ever the film will appeal to an international audience interested in the truth of how young people live in Tehran, and our film provides that insight."

Julie Ryan and Kate Croser worked together on Rolf de Heer's Ten Canoes and established Cyan Films in 2007 after Adelaide Film Festival director Katrina Sedgwick approached them with writer/director Granaz Moussavi's groundbreaking script. Says Kate Croser, "We couldn't have hoped for a more exciting and challenging first feature film to produce under the Cyan Films banner, and we're so pleased that the film is now reaching international audiences".

The film was funded by the South Australian Film Corporation and the Adelaide Film Festival where it premiered earlier this year to sell out sessions in Official Competition. Most recently, Screen Australia provided marketing assistance for the film following its selection at Toronto.

Release Date: 19th, November, 2009