04/09/2026 - VENICE 2026: An Iranian family man loses his house and his nerve in Mohsen Gharaei’s often intriguing, but ultimately uneven, drama

Five or six days – that’s how long prison warden Rashid (Farhad Aslani) and his family have to move out of their house, as their former neighbourhood is being redeveloped to make way for a motorway. In a few more days, not much of that family unit will be left. But “Falling House” does not just refer to a building destined to collapse. In Mohsen Gharaei’s drama Falling House, which premiered in the Orizzonti section of the 83rd Venice Film Festival, it also hints at the collapse of the traditional family structure and way of life. The man of the house is no longer the sole decision maker, leading to a pushback while everything around him is already crumbling.

When we first meet Rashid, he seems like a bumbling, everyday guy, handing out extra rations at the prison he works at on the outskirts of Tehran and being the go-to guy for inmates with problems, much to the chagrin of his boss. He keeps getting asked what kind of extra money he’s making by helping them; he keeps answering that he is doing it for the prayers. After all, he has to move his family to a new home.

The family in question consists of his wife, Zirat (Rima Raminfar), their twenty-something daughter Ensi (Laleh Marzban) and their teenage girl Janan (Elena Khakbazan). They are a capable coven of women who not only earn more money than him, but also have better prospects in life. This is where the mask of the friendly Rashid slowly starts to slip.

While the mother has endured many of her husband’s whims over the years, Ensi has other plans for her life. She wants to go to Turkey and start a modelling career, with no plans to return to Tehran. Her mother and sister are in the loop, but Rashid only learns about the plan when Zirat, as tradition obliges, asks Ensi to tell him. Instead of setting his children free and wishing them the best of luck, the man snaps. Having just been incarcerated for a few days after the prison director accused him of helping an inmate escape, he now has to swallow the bitter pill of the ladies coming up with the bail while he is out of a job. His pride is further wounded by the news that Ensi is leaving. In a last-ditch effort to assert his authority, he locks the women in their rooms. Only when Ensi abandons her plans will he let them out. “I lost my job; I don’t want to lose my family as well,” is the mantra.

Gharaei effortlessly switches between genres here. What seemingly starts off as a social drama quickly shifts into a psychological chamber play about a man trying to salvage what Iranian society sees as “reputation”. “Don’t ridicule me,” is the repeated threat. The pleasant prison guard turns into a torturer; the gang of inmates respecting their warden gives way to a group of women navigating hatred, sorrow and independence. The fact that Rashid can hide his whole family for days in a soon-to-be-demolished house with no questions asked is further proof of how invisible women are in Iranian society – nobody will miss them.

Where the movie frustrates, however, is that Gharaei falls into the trap of resolving conflict by making the oppressor see and understand. Rashid can’t just be a self-centred, spiteful man; at some point, the movie suggests pitying him. As for the women, they repeatedly have to express their plight to be set free. There’s no revenge or breaking out; it’s all about absolution by their captor. It is a controversial trope, and while Gharaei does make a point about the “falling house” of a man, he cheapens the struggle of these multigenerational women.

Falling House was produced by Iran’s Seven Springs Pictures, US-based RaeFilm Studios, Puerto Rica’s 3SIX9 STUDIOS, and Germany’s Basis Berlin Filmproduktion and Zentropa Germany. It is sold internationally by Paradise City Sales.