A feature film shot in secret in Tehran and smuggled out of Iran has been shown at the London Film Festival, its directors told the AFP news agency.
The film, "The Friend's House Is Here", follows best friends and roommates Pari, a playwright and actress, and Hana, a dancer, according to AFP as carried by CTV News. The characters are fictional.
They belong to a community of young underground artists in the Iranian capital. Pari's plays are performed in secret because she refuses to seek authorisation from the Iranian authorities, AFP reported.
The directors, the husband-and-wife team Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei, told AFP the film is a "love letter" to young Iranian artists. They said it had to be smuggled out of Iran.
The film won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in January, AFP reported, so the London screening was not its first showing. It is due for release in the United States on 4 December.
Mr Keshavarz said the aim was to show how people were living during a difficult period. "We want to show that within this kind of tumultuous time, these people are still living their lives and still doing their art," he told AFP.
He described the experience of the film reaching audiences abroad as "bittersweet". He also called the cast and the wider community an "amazing generation of artists".
According to Hürriyet Daily News, which carried the AFP report, the film was shot over several weeks in September and October 2025. The directors described the shoot as joyful but urgent.
The crew used a small camera and sound equipment hidden in a bag, the report said. Some scenes were rehearsed on iPhones.
Filming outdoors was harder because the actresses appeared without headscarves, the directors told AFP. Hijab is compulsory under Iranian law.
The production also faced difficulties from US-Israeli strikes on Tehran in June 2025 and from later internet cuts, according to AFP. Hürriyet dated the strikes to June 2025.
Mr Keshavarz told AFP the team felt time pressure during the shoot. Kuwait Times, also carrying the AFP report, quoted him as saying: "we have to finish quickly because there's going to be another war".
Ms Ataei said the couple used to go to see many underground plays in Tehran. She said they were inspired when they met a group of improvisation actors.
The directors said they were also inspired by artists who had been arrested after posting dance videos or performing in secret. They said they wanted to show independent women and girls living together and helping each other.
Mr Keshavarz also commented on conditions in Iran. He said the war with the United States was "basically never ending" and that the economy was in free fall, calling it a very difficult time in the country.
No response from Iranian officials to the film or to the directors' account of the shoot had been reported. The account of the production comes from the directors.
Plays and films in Iran need official authorisation, which is the process Pari's character refuses to go through in the story. The directors told AFP the film was made without it.
Mr Keshavarz and Ms Ataei have divided their time between the United States and Iran for about 20 years, AFP reported.
Iran International, an opposition-linked news outlet, reported in February 2026 that more Iranian artists were making unlicensed films inside the country. It said they used small crews and screened the films abroad.
The outlet described this as a growing trend after the 2022 protests known as "Woman, Life, Freedom". It gave the example of "Cesarean Weekend" by Mohammad Shirvani, shown at the Berlin festival.
The film's US release on 4 December will be its next public showing mentioned in the AFP reports.
Photo: # IranOpenAlbum (Steve Zind) / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
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