Golshifteh Farahani is one of the most prominent Iranian actors globally, appearing in movies not only in her native Iran, but in the United States and France as well. She was born in Tehran to a notable theater director and actor, and was educated in both music and acting throughout her childhood. It seemed only natural that Farahani would progress into acting for television and theater as an adult. Her first prominent role came when she was cast in Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly, although she had previously briefly made an appearance in an Abbas Kiarostami film.
Unfortunately, not long after that, Farahani was chastised by the Islamic regime for appearing in the American movie Bodies Without Lies without a hijab. This, in combination with her posing in a French magazine nude, forced the actress into exile abroad. Despite this, Farahani has continued her acting career in French and English cinema rather than Farsi-language movies. Farahani also has begun to use her influence to advocate abroad for the condition Iranian women face in their everyday lives. A global actress, Farahani’s career continues to excite fans and newcomers alike. These are her best movies so far.
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7 The Night Eats the World
Ciné+
Released in 2018, The Night Eats the World imagines what would happen if a zombie apocalypse occurred in Paris. Farahani stars with Anders Danielsen Lie and Denis Lavant as three different people, one a zombie and the other two alive. A man named Sam (Lie) tries to recover some of his belongings from his ex-girlfriend, but, after taking a nap, wakes up to a completely different world than what he fell asleep to. Struggling to cope with the fact that his life and everyone he knows have forever been changed, The Night Eats the World is a physical and mental struggle.
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6 Arab Blues
Kazak Productions
Farahani leads the 2018 film Arab Blues as Selma, a woman in Tunisia looking to set up a practice as a psychoanalyst. She had moved abroad to Paris to get her education, but decided to return to her home country to set up her business and try to help the communities she grew up in. As an educated woman trying to conduct something not widely accepted in more traditional societies, she initially is not taken seriously. Arab Blues is a portrait of modernization in contemporary Tunisia through the lens of one ambitious woman’s pursuits.
5 Rosewater
Busboy Productions
Rosewater is based on a memoir titled Then They Came For Me, which tells the story of imprisoned journalist Maziar Bahari. An Iranian-Canadian journalist, he returned to Iran in 2009 to cover protests against the presidential elections. He was jailed under the terms that he was an American spy and an Israeli Zionist. The movie dramatizes his time at Evin Prison, leaving his family and pregnant fiancée in the dark about what his fate would be.
4 Extraction
Netflix
Netflix’s Extraction stars Chris Hemsworth in the leading role, as well as Randeep Hooda and Golshifteh Farahani. Hemsworth is a mercenary from Australia hired to rescue the son of an Indian drug lord after he is kidnapped at a party. Rumored to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Extraction is about the process of getting him back home and the ensuing struggle that occurs because of it. An upcoming sequel with Hemsworth and Farahani is in the works.
3 Body of Lies
Warner Bros.
Ridley Scott’s 2008 movie Body of Lies had two big names as its leads: Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. They were joined by Mark Strong, Golshifteh Farahani, and Oscar Isaac in an adaptation of a 2007 novel by David Ignatius. Set in the Middle East, it tracks the efforts of the CIA and Jordanian government to try and get ahold of a terrorist. This task is not easy, though, and many frustrations await the government officials as they try to stop the next attack before it happens.
2 Paterson
Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani are the two stars of Paterson, which is a surprisingly wholesome movie. Unassuming at first glance, it tells the story of a bus driver (Driver) from Paterson, New Jersey, who writes poetry whenever he gets free time. He has an artistic girlfriend (Farahani) and spends his evenings drinking at a local bar, but one night, they return home to discover their dog destroyed his poems. A wholesome story about art, life, and creativity, Paterson is not to be missed.
1 About Elly
Dreamlab
About Elly was one of Farahani’s final film roles before departing Iran, and it may be the one that set the trajectory of her career. She is paired opposite to Taraneh Alidoosti and Shahab Hosseini, two of Iran’s most promising actors. About Elly tells the story of Sepideh, a married woman with children, inviting Elly (Alidoosti), her child’s kindergarten teacher, to an outing with several other middle-class people. They arrive at their lodging to discover it is not as nice as advertised, while Elly shyly begins to try a relationship with someone who came with them (Hosseini). However, she disappears while watching a child, delving deeper into moral and philosophical questions in the movie’s themes.
