Leila’s Brothers () is a 2022 Iranian drama film directed, written and co-produced by Saeed Roustayi, starring Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Saeed Poursamimi and Payman Maadi. In April 2022, the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
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
Taraneh Alidoosti as Leila Jourablou
Navid Mohammadzadeh as Alireza Jourablou
Saeed Poursamimi as Esmail Jourablou
Payman Maadi as Manouchehr Jourablou
Mohammad Alimohammadi as Farhad Jourablou
Nayereh Farahani as The mother
Mehdi Hosseininia as Bayram
Farhad Aslani as Parviz Jourablou
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. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 5 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".
Accolades
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.
While Taraneh Alidoosti, another actress in this film, is one of the women following the complaints of abused women in the cinema.
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. At the festival, Aslani did not go to Cannes.
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.
The next day, she posted on Instagram that she had been sexually assaulted by him 25 years ago.
On June 1, a retired actress, Ladan Tabatabaei, announced in a live stream on Instagram that she had also been verbally abused by Poursamimi.