The Friend’s House Is Here: Film Review

The Friend’s House Is Here is a clever and charming tale of defiance, made under duress, but with no shortage of confidence and skill.

Where can a friend be found? And what will we do to find them? Almost 40 years later, writers-producers-directors Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei respond with The Friend’s House Is Here. 

Like Kiarostami’s film, The Friend’s House Is Here is a slice of life told in an episodic fashion, but while its characters live far more comfortable lives than the residents of Koker, they have the same worry for friends and family that drove young Ahmed on to seek out his schoolmate’s home. Two young women in present day Tehran find themselves confronting similar dilemmas, and with even greater real-world stakes. Those stakes are reflective of how their story was created; The Friend’s House Is Here was shot mostly in secret, in the middle of power cuts, and sometimes interrupted by explosions. Both the characters and filmmakers are driven by a need to create in order to tell their stories, regardless of the dangers they invite.

Pari (Mahshad Bahraminejad) and Hanna (Hana Mana) are best friends and housemates, living the kind of happy-go-lucky life that many people in their late 20s would take for granted in other parts of the world. Pari works in an art gallery, but her passion is for theatre. She runs an underground drama troupe in which Hanna performs and dances. If the characters weren’t speaking Farsi, this could all have unfolded in a Brooklyn suburb. Cinematographer Ali Ehsani gives the city a decidedly contemporary look, emphasizing primary colours and sunshine. Alas, the comfortable world of The Friend’s House Is Here can’t shield its heroines from inevitable trouble.

Keshavarz and Ataei draw inspiration from Kiarostami, right down to borrowing the typeface and colouring of the poster for Where Is The Friend’s House? for their own. However, their differing circumstances dictate their methods must differ too. Where Kiarostami used the metaphor of children suffering from parental and societal disinterest and neglect, The Friend’s House Is Here is more direct and timely. Pari and Hanna are trying to live their lives in a society that seeks to refuse them their voice.They meet friends, share meals and gossip, and all in ways which belie the restrictions that are imposed from just beyond the frame. The pair wear their choice of clothes with their hair down, but a passer-by berates them for their lack of hijabs.

The Friend’s House Is Here is a story of two distinct halves. The first half establishes Pari and Hanna’s lives as aspirationally happy. Pari’s latest play as actor and director is garnering acclaim, and Hanna is deepening her relationship with boyfriend Ali (Farzad Karen) while preparing to emigrate to France. Keshavarz and Ataei play this out long enough for Pari, Hanna and us to lower our guards. Bahraminejad and Mana’s terrific performances are vital in this regard. The pair charm as an odd-couple pairing, Pari’s professionalism contrasting with Hanna’s headlong vim for life. This sweet friendship is the beating heart of the film, and makes its detour into more dangerous territory all the more involving.

Life is going so well for Pari and Hana that it comes as a rug pull when a government inspector turns up at one of Pari’s performances to intimidate her into shutting down. From there, life threatens to fall apart. Hanna arrives home to find their apartment ransacked and Pari missing. The second half of The Friend’s House Is Here brings all concerned down to Earth with a sickening thump, as Hanna searches for Pari and prepares to sacrifice all she holds dear to get her back. Keshavarz and Ataei understand this tension all too well. They filmed on the hop to avoid detection, while the 12-day June War between Iran and Israel raged, before smuggling it out to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Life imitates art yet again.

The fact The Friend’s House Is Here could be made and secreted out of Iran at all is just one of its many triumphs. For something shot in such a haphazard way, it looks and moves with unexpected elegance. Keshavarz and Ataei do not neglect their influences, using the necessary nimbleness of their camera to their advantage. One of Pari’s performances blurs the lines between performance and reality in a manner evoking the meta antics of Kiarostami’s Close-Up, while a slow tracking shot through a window nods to Antonioni’s The Passenger. Compromise in the filmmaking does not compromise the final result; the movie switches between subtle observance and Brechtian artifice with purpose and confidence. Restriction lends the film greater urgency; its existence and professionalism become acts of defiance.

As the U.S.-Iran conflict rages on, The Friend’s House Is Here offers palpable context, showing a relatable vision of modern Iran, without compromising on its cultural richness or myriad influences. Jafar Panahi might offer a more scathing response to the Iranian authorities’ stranglehold on its people, but Keshavarz and Ataei’s film hints at the more subtle insidiousnesses of the regime, while also hinting at hope just beyond the horizon. Like Kiarostami’s original vision, The Friend’s House Is Here urges resilience, in hope that things will work out for the better.

The Friend’s House Is Here was screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 11, 2026. The film will be released in US theaters on December 4, 2026.