Son of Man

Silver Mountain Distribution

VERDICT: A transgender man whose teenage daughter is about to learn his well-kept secret is at the heart of a serviceably shot but deeply felt Iranian drama directed by Sepideh Mir Hosseini.

Among the many surprising new films coming out of Iran, Son of Man is one that immediately catches the eye. The topic is the excruciating difficulty a loving father has in telling his 18-year-old daughter he was born a woman – he is actually her mother, in fact – for fear he will lose her affection. His personal drama is magnified many times over by its setting in conservative Iran, where the laws are stacked against women and in favor of men. Paradoxically, it is the very fact that the protagonist, as a man, is entitled to a bigger share of his family inheritance that sets off one of those typical Iranian family feuds based on greed and vendetta, where suddenly everything is at stake.

There aren’t that many films with transgender subjects in the presumably more liberal Western world, so to find the subject boldly treated in an Iranian debut is all the more unexpected. But the complexity of the issue also requires discretion and respect, which actress-turned-director Sepideh Mir Hosseini certainly shows in the screenplay she co-wrote with Panah Khodayari based on the true story of a college acquaintance. A theme and story like this would be a big bite to chew even for an experienced filmmaker, and here the drama shows the hallmarks and limitations of a first-time director still searching for her artistic feet. Its curiosity value is nonetheless high, and the Irish sales company Silver Mountain Distribution should find curious audiences when the film premieres at the Ischia Global Film and Music Festival in July.

Rather remarkably, given the well-known censorship issues in Iran, the filmmakers also plan to release Son of Man on its home turf. Although homosexuality is a crime, Iran is one of the only Islamic countries in the Persian Gulf to legally recognize the gender identity of trans people who have been operated on for sex reassignment. Knowing this makes some of the film’s plot points a tad less obscure.

Ahura (played by TV actor Behnam Sharafi) and his daughter Armita (Paria Mardanian) appear to live a comfortable life in Tehran, and it comes as a surprise to see he earns his living as a cobbler making shoes in a windowless basement room. In any case, they are very close. Armita has been told her mother died when she was a child and has grown up completely in the dark about her Dad’s operation. That in itself is a loaded situation waiting to explode, and it is set off by Ahura’s bestial brother (Hadi Eftekharzadeh)  who is so villainous one expects him to twirl his moustache as he curses Ahura for disgracing the family. The recent death of their father has raised inheritance issues and Ahura, at the urging of family friend and confidante Minoo (a fine Leila Zareh), sticks to his guns and demands a man’s share. Minoo is a professional woman and her seriousness and compassion lend some much-needed credence to the strange menage.

Next to erupt into Ahura and Armita’s carefully sheltered life is another monster, Bahman (Majid Potki), who was forcefully married to the protag when Ahura was a young woman, and who now discovers he has a grown daughter and what he terms “fatherly rights”. And she’s an interesting girl at that, a free-thinker who plays drums in a rock band and who innocently enjoys Bahman’s company (while Ahura goes mad with anxiety at home.) There’s plenty of drama lying around and, if the simpatico Sharafi leans toward the sentimental side in the main role, pulling out the stops in an extended, heart-breaking scene of self-loathing, Potki turns his initially cruel portrait of Armita’s biological father into something much richer and more rewarding by the end.

The dialogue suffers from staginess and the camera set-ups are disappointingly basic, but the cinematography, like Payam Azadi’s musical commentary, often captures the raw emotions that Mir Hosseini and her actors never shy away from.

Director: Sepideh Mir Hosseini
Screenwriters: Panah Khodayari, Sepideh Mir Hosseini
Cast: Behnam Sharafi, Paria Mardanian, Leila Zareh, Majid Potki, Hadi Eftekharzadeh
Producers: Vahid Dalili, Sepideh Mir Hosseini
Cinematography: Shahram Najjaryan
Production and costume design: Maryam Ghasemi
Editing: Massoud Farjam
Music: Payam Azadi
Sound design: Behrooz Moavenian
Production company: Dalili Group (Iran)
World sales: Silver Mountain Distribution (Ireland)
93 minutes