Leila's Brothers

Leila’s Brothers (Persian: برادران لیلا, romanized: Barādarān-e Leilā) is a 2022 Iranian drama film directed, written and co-produced by Saeed Roustayi, starring Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Saeed Poursamimi and Payman Maadi.[2][3] In April 2022, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.[4][5]

Leila's Brothers
French poster
Persianبرادران لیلا
Directed bySaeed Roustayi
Written bySaeed Roustayi
Produced bySaeed Roustayi
Javad Norouzshahi
Starring
CinematographyHooman Behmanesh
Edited byBahram Dehghani
Music byRamin Kousha
Distributed byWild Bunch
Release dates
  • 25 May 2022 (2022-05-25) (Cannes)
  • 24 August 2022 (2022-08-24) (France)
Running time
160 minutes
CountryIran
LanguagePersian
Box office$758,423[1]

Plot

At 40 years old, Leila has spent her whole life taking care of her parents and her four brothers. The family argues constantly and is seemingly crushed by debts, caught in a country with a huge economic crisis and unbelievable inflations as a result of the US economic sanctions on the country. As her brothers are trying to make ends meet, Leila formulates a plan: to start a family business that would save them from poverty. Looking for capital to fund the costs of a storefront in a soon-to-be converted mall bathroom, they are surprised by their father, Esmail, who in his ambition to become family patriarch wants to gift 40 gold coins at a wedding, while he, cares nothing about the ambitions of his well-grown children. However, Leila in cahoots with her three other brothers tricks Alireza who is supposed to present the coins on behalf of his father by giving him an empty box. The father is crowned patriarch just to be demoted and replaced by a rival, shortly after it turns out that Alireza does not have coins to give. The father claims he took out a mortgage to buy the coins and the family will be homeless if he doesn't get back the money. Alireza feeling used and fearing for the roof over their head incites his brothers against Leila's plans, they decide to give back their father the money to pay the mortgage. Inflation and rising prices however crush their plans making it near impossible to get enough money for the coins or to be able to buy them back leaving them ever closer to financial ruin. In a final reveal, however, it turns out that the father did not mortgage the house at all but had a secret bank account, living in filth and letting his children suffer while hoarding cash, from which he funded the coins. Soon after this revelation the father dies during a young girl's birthday party, which only Alireza notices leaving him in shock surrounded by joyous celebrations.

Cast

Release

The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival which was held from 17 to 28 May 2022.

Reception

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 10 reviews are positive for the film, with an average rating of 6/10.[7] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 5 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[8]

Accolades
Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref(s)
Cannes Film Festival 28 May 2022 Palme d'Or Saeed Roustayi Nominated [9]
FIPRESCI Prize Won [10]
Citizenship Prize Won [11]

Controversy

Actors' sexual assaults charges

The two actors in this film, Saeed Poursamimi and Farhad Aslani, were accused of sexually assaulting Katayoun Riahi and Somayyeh Mirshamsi. Both charges were after filming.[12][13]

While Taraneh Alidoosti, another actress in this film, is one of the women following the complaints of abused women in the cinema.[14]

After Aslani was charged by the assistant director Somayyeh Mirshamsi, Alidoosti announced on her Instagram that the rest of the cast won't stand by the accused at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.[15] At the festival, Aslani did not go to Cannes.[16]

After the cast appeared on the red carpet, the famous actress, Katayoun Riahi, posted the photo of Poursamimi at Cannes with a red cross on him and mentioning the Iranian page of me too movement in her Instagram story.[17][18]

The next day, she posted on Instagram that she had been sexually assaulted by him 25 years ago.[19][20]

On June 1, a retired actress, Ladan Tabatabaei, announced in a live stream on Instagram that she had also been verbally abused by Poursamimi.[2][3]

Iranian government's response

The Cinema Organization of Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance expressed dissatisfaction with the film as cast members made remarks critical of the Iranian government at Cannes, and Mohammadzadeh kissed his wife, Fereshteh Hosseini, on the red carpet.[21] On 1 June 2022, minister Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili said the film may not be allowed to be released in Iran since it screened at Cannes without the government's approval, which he said was against the law.[22] On 22 June 2022, Esmaili said the organization had officially banned the film.[23] On 15 August 2023, the film's director, Saeed Roustaee, and its producer Javad Noruzbegi were both sentenced to six months in prison by the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran for screening the film without approval. As part of the sentence, which is served for nine days while the rest will be suspended over five years, Saeed Roustaee and Javad Noruzbegi have to take a 24-hour course about "creating movies aligned with national interests and national morality".[24]

References
  1. Leila's Brothers (2022) at Box Office Mojo
  2. "از محمدزاده و علیدوستی تا معادی و اصلانی در «برادران لیلا»". خبرگزاری برنا (in Persian). Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  3. "واکنش به اخبار غیر رسمی فیلم سعید روستایی". ایسنا (in Persian). 2021-09-07. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  4. "«برادران لیلا»ی سعید روستایی در مسابقه اصلی کن". ایسنا (in Persian). 2022-04-14. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  5. عباسی‌زاده, مریم (2022-04-14). "دو فیلم ایرانی «برادران لیلا» و «عنکبوت مقدس» در بخش مسابقه جشنواره کن ۲۰۲۲". euronews (in Persian). Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  6. "«برادران لیلا» ساخته سعید روستایی، به بخش رقابتی جشنواره فیلم کن راه یافت". خبرآنلاین (in Persian). 2022-04-14. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
  7. "Leila's Brothers". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  8. "Leila's Brothers". Metacritic. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  9. "The films of the Official Selection 2022 - Festival de Cannes". www.festival-cannes.com. 2022-04-14. Retrieved 2022-04-16.
  10. "75th Cannes Film Festival". Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  11. "Cannes 2022 : le Prix de la citoyenneté pour "Leila et ses frères"". Ecran Total (in French). 28 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  12. MovieMag. "افشاگری سمیه میرشمسی از آزارهای جسمی و روحی توسط بازیگر مشهور!". moviemag.ir (in Persian). Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  13. "واکنش‌ها به افشاگری آزار جنسی سمیه میرشمسی دستیار کارگردان". sarpoosh (in Persian). 2022-03-28. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  14. "پنج زن سینماگر ایرانی برای پیگیری 'خشونت، آزار و باج‌گیری جنسی' انتخاب شدند". BBC News فارسی (in Persian). Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  15. "بیانیه غیرمستقیم ترانه علیدوستی و همکارانش: چهره آزارگر را در کن کنار خود نمی پذیریم - سـینما پـلاک". cinemapelak.ir (in Persian). 2022-04-16. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  16. "تصاویر | حضور سعید روستایی و بازیگران برادران لیلا در فتوکال جشنواره کن - همشهری آنلاین". www.hamshahrionline.ir. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  17. "ماجرای اتهام آزار جنسی کتایون ریاحی به بازیگر قدیمی سینمای ایران چیست؟". سایت طلا (in Persian). 2022-05-28. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  18. "روایت کتایون ریاحی از تعرض سعید پورصمیمی به او/ عکس". sarpoosh (in Persian). 2022-05-28. Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  19. MovieMag. "کتایون ریاحی جزئیات تجاوز سعید پورصمیمی به خودش را منتشر کرد!". moviemag.ir (in Persian). Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  20. "سعید پورصمیمی 25 سال پیش به من تعرض کرده است". خبرگزاری موج (in Persian). Retrieved 2022-05-28.
  21. "Iran condemns Cannes acclaim for "Holy Spider"". Tehran Times. 30 May 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  22. "Cannes Film Festival: Iran says protested to France over Holy Spider selection". The New Arab. 1 June 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2022.
  23. "Iran movie feted by Cannes critics banned at home". AFP. 22 June 2022. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  24. "Iran Sentences Director to 6 Months After He Screened Film at Cannes". 2023-08-16. Retrieved 2023-08-17.
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