Vahid Ghazi Zahedi

Lantouri is the name of a gang that mugs people in broad daylight on the streets of Tehran and breaks into homes in the city’s rich northern district. The gang also kidnaps children from families who have become wealthy through corruption and embezzlement of state funds. The film begins with the confessions of individual gang members. Sociologists, human rights activists and political hardliners also have their say. Gang member Pasha runs amok because Maryam, a socially committed, self-confident journalist, does not reciprocate his feelings. The badly injured young woman demands lex talionis – the law, applicable in Iran, of ‘an eye for an eye’.

In an Iran weighed down by a struggling economy, two middle-aged brothers live with their bullying father. A man prone to rages and driven by chauvinism, the father’s abusiveness found his second wife leaving him. Now he picks on his eldest son, while the younger sibling fantasises about ways to kill his father. When the man rents out the flat above to a young woman, with intentions of marrying her, the woman’s attraction to the older son slowly pushes this profoundly damaged family to breaking point.

"Paytakht" is a popular Iranian television series that follows the everyday lives of the Mamooli family, a Mazandarani household living in the village of Aliabad. The story centres on Naqi Mamooli, his wife Homa Saadat, their twin daughters Sara and Nika, Naqi's elderly father, Baba Panjali, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, and Arastoo Amel, Naqi's cousin. Throughout the series, the family finds itself in a variety of humorous situations and unexpected adventures, creating a heart-warming blend of comedy and family drama.