Tehran Taboo

Using realistic CGI and rotoscope animation—in part to avoid the country’s censors—Tehran Taboo takes a striking, complex, and sometimes shocking look at the sexual double-standards that underlie daily life in contemporary Iran, where sex, drugs, and corruption coexist with strict religious law. Through multiple storylines the drama follows the intersecting lives of several characters (a prostitute, young wife, a musician, and his fiancée) who must navigate a system of taboos that actively disempower women—taboos that, for personal and practical reasons, are broken every day. (96 mins., DCP)