Teheran Tabu

This animated movie depicts the consequences of prostitution, drugs, physical contact prior to marriage, equality of genders, religion, and the importance of virginity. The colors used in the movie are not bright and colorful and from watching the movie one can understand why. A woman needing her husband's written consent and for him to deliver it in person to get a job or to enroll a child in school in unreal.

Extremely pessimistic, Tehran Taboo wants to say everybody in Iran is corrupted because of the theocracy in the Islamic Republic of Iran. From the point of view of this animation, everybody who lives in Iran is a lier, disgusting, insinuating, maniac, selfish and egocentric. But it is just a cartoon and doesn't show the real-life in Iran. Unfortunately, the international festivals gave some rewards to this animation so the one who doesn't know the truth about Iranian real people and their lives may believe that all the issues in Tehran Taboo is base on reality.

With all the clever and beautiful aspects of the movie, there are still basic details that are not observed and it is because the makers do not live in Iran.

The idea of an animated film through rotoscope made the frames eye catching and interesting to watch. It also helped to make the movie more believable since it has not been shot in Tehran. But the story has been superficially narrated and has not gone to more than a collage of the misery of a nation.

The spectator cannot sympathize with the characters, since there is just a lot of unfortunate incidents taking place one after another, without answering fundamental questions. For instance, why is the boy mute? Is it congenital or has anything happened to him? Why does the woman become a prostitute? Why has the neighbor aborted her child two times? The movie COULD make us to take SOME of the conditions for granted, but the questions are too many and the story seems to be a realistic one.

The director/writer could instead take few of the issues that he brought up in the movie, and just develop the story around them, instead of narrating all of the misery one after another. Unfortunately this type of story telling makes the movie not last for long and be only useful to win awards.

Exploring the sexual & gender double standards in contemporary Iran, all resulting from their strict religious codes, Tehran Taboo paints a thoroughly fascinating portrait of everyday life lived in the bustling modern metropolis where breaking societal taboos has now become the only way for its people to achieve freedom & happiness.