Paradise City Boards Gharaei's 'Falling House' for Venice
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- Paradise City Sales boarded worldwide sales on Mohsen Gharaei's "Falling House," which world premieres in the Horizons section at the Venice Film Festival, with CAA Media Finance handling U.S. rights.
- The film follows a modest family on Tehran's outskirts facing home demolition under a vast redevelopment project: father Rashid, a prison guard, is accused of corruption while eldest daughter Ensi secretly plans to leave Iran to become a model.
- The cast features Laleh Marzban, Rima Raminfar, Farhad Aslani, and Elena Khakbaz, with score by Max Richter ("Hamnet"), cinematography by Farshad Mohammadi, editing by Evelyn Rack ("Sound of Falling"), and sound design by Oscar-nominated Ansgar Frerich ("Of Fathers and Sons").
- Producers include Milad Khosravi and Mohsen Gharaei for Seven Springs Pictures, Oscar-winning Odessa Rae for RaeFilm Studios, and Daya Fernández, Amaury Nolasco, and Alois Rubenbauer for 3SIX9 Studios, with Basis Berlin and Zentropa Germany co-producing and Oscar-nominated Jon Kilik as executive producer.
- Producer Milad Khosravi said the screenplay was completed before "the present madness in our country could have been imagined," calling the film "painfully prophetic" about ordinary people facing "decades of oppression."
- Gharaei's previous feature "Blockage" (2017), a portrait of contemporary Iranian society, won best film at Busan before screening at Rotterdam and Munich.
Why it matters: The Venice Horizons slot comes with heavyweight crew attachments — Max Richter composing, Oscar-nominated Ansgar Frerich on sound, and Oscar winner Odessa Rae producing — giving the film strong festival positioning out of the gate. The producers' explicit framing of the screenplay as "painfully prophetic" signals the film is being pitched as politically resonant human drama rather than direct political commentary.
