BFI London Film Festival 2026: The Friend’s House is Here

Writers and Directors: Maryam Ataei and Hossein Keshavarz

Artists are sometimes categorised as having their heads in the clouds and making little contact with the ‘real’ world. Dancer Hanna (Mana Hana), one of the central characters in The Friend’s House is Here, conforms to this stereotype, a blond bohemian with a belief in astrology and an inability to comprehend the political arguments put forward by her roommate Pari (Mahshad Bahram). But context makes all the difference; the friends reside in the Iranian capital Tehran where any type of artistic expression becomes an act of courage, a sign of resistance against an oppressive regime.

Hanna is a TikTok dancer and has secured the Holy Grail-a visa which will allow her to escape to France. Pari works in an art gallery but also writes and directs experimental underground theatre which does not accord with state ideology and is, therefore, liable to incur fines or imprisonment. When one of Pari’s works attracts unwanted attention she discovers the consequences of non-compliance.

Written and directed by Maryam Ataei and Hossein Keshavarz The Friend’s House is Here is, in itself, an act of defiance; an example of art imitating life. Filmed guerrilla-style in secret on the streets of Tehran and smuggled across the border as the cast were denied visas to attend its Sundance premiere.

Inevitably there is a rough and ready style to the film due to limited opportunity for retakes. The episodic structure, whilst occasionally straining audience attention, suits the approach taken by Ataei and Keshavarz. Some of the scenes are filmed as rehearsals with cast members warming up in the background as Pari enacts her script which involves her reacting to the imagined arrest of a friend.

There is a sense of people caught in a type of limbo, the characters sitting around chatting as if waiting for something to happen. Instances of repression seem initially trivial, almost amusing. Hanna laughs recalling a man shouting ‘Naked!’ when she wore blue shorts and the friends are amused when their public conversation is interrupted by a passer-by demanding they don hijabs. Gradually, the mood becomes more oppressive, Hanna dashes through the streets coping with an emergency as her boyfriend follows desperately trying to ensure she keeps her head modestly covered.

Mahshad Bahram’s Pari carries the emotional burden of the film. Pari is isolated as she overhears, but cannot object to, the owner of the gallery where she works describing her in crude terms. The key sequence in the film involves Pari taking criticism of her play from someone she assumes is a critic. The scene opens with Pari gratefully accepting the observations but becomes increasingly scary as she realises, rather than being given advice, she is being threatened with reprisals.  Mahshad Bahram becomes tearful as Pari’s illusions are shattered and the visitor moves from praising her work as being too good to be performed in underground venues to demanding she seek official sanction. Pari, although terrified, heroically still manages to be defiant arguing that in art you do not ask for permission.

As always, Pari has to accept the mundane real-world consequences of her artistic actions. She is reminded by her mother than friends and neighbours helped to meet the cost of bailing her out of gaol and deserve to be repaid.

The authenticity of The Friend’s House is Here is beyond question. But the genuine chemistry between Mahshad Bahram and Mana Hana makes for a convincing and moving friendship and so demonstrates the human cost for ordinary people of enduring, and challenging, a repressive regime.

The Friend’s House is Here is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 from 7-18 October.