m Keshavarz, director of the new Tehran-set lesbian drama “Circumstance,” knows all about difficult circumstances.She grew up in Iran and America in the 1980s, in the wake of the Iran Hostage Crisis, the Iranian Revolution and the war between Iran and Iraq. “It was a hard time growing up,” she admits. “I was hated in America for being Iranian, and I was hated in Iran for being American.”Growing up in the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn, she says “our windows were broken; our tires were slashed. There was a lot of hostility.”Keshavarz’s first feature “Circumstance” is also generating hostility.Ever since premiering at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award, the film, which follows two young women grappling with their sexuality in the Islamic nation, has generated a considerable amount of anxiety within the Iranian and Iranian-American community, according to Keshavarz. She says she has received threats both in person and by email. “Threats in email are funny, because they are always in poor English,” she says.At advance screenings, she says there have been hostile responses from men in the audience. “It’s usually Iranian men in their 50s and 60s,” she says. “Often, the questions are framed in terms of authenticity. Like I don’t have the right to speak because I don’t live in Iran. But I’ve always been very upfront that I go back and forth, and I have a different perspective than a filmmaker from Iran would. But… >>>
