MORTICIAN

Director: Abdolreza Kahani
Cast: Nima Sadr, Pouya Razavi, Erfan Bokaei
Genre: Drama
Duration: 1h 35m
Country: Canada
Year: 2025

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2025 – Winner 

A reclusive mortician faces an unusual request from a dissident singer in hiding.

Director Abdolreza Kahani returns with another entirely original and gripping character study and puzzle piece. A reclusive mortician faces an unusual request from a dissident singer in hiding, their bond providing the beating heart of this disarmingly elegant film. Combining a distinctive, lo-fi visual style, naturalistic performances and familiar wit and humanity, Kahani’s new film is utterly distinctive and affecting with a gut punch ending that will leave audiences reeling.

The film stars Nima Sadr as Mojtaba, an Iranian expatriate living in Canada, where he works for a company that washes dead bodies in accordance with Islamic funeral customs. When he receives notice from his boss (Mehdi Salar) that the company is shutting down and he should consider moving back to Iran, he is approached by Jana (Golazin Ardestani), an Iranian pop star also in exile who intends to commit suicide as a social media protest to raise awareness among her fans of government oppression in Iran.

Kahani shot the film entirely on an iPhone, with no other camera or sound equipment.

„Exiled Iranians hover between worlds in a dark protest film with a light touch” - Variety