THE STORY – A modest family on the outskirts of Tehran faces the imminent destruction of their home as part of a vast redevelopment project. While Rashid, the father and a prison guard, is being accused of corruption, he discovers that his eldest daughter, Ensi, is secretly planning to leave Iran to become a model.
THE CAST – Laleh Marzban, Farhad Aslani, Rima Raminfar & Elena Khakbazan
THE TEAM – Mohsen Gharei (Director/Writer) & Amirmohammad Abdi (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 130 Minutes
Family is never easy. Every household has its fair share of secrets, unspoken rules, and complex relationships that shift over time. In Mohsen Gharei’s “Falling House”, however, the writer pushes these domestic boundaries to the extreme, detailing what happens when toxic masculinity, personal ambition, and financial instability weed their way into an otherwise loving family and deroot the domestic sphere from the ground up.
“Falling House” begins as a fairly simple family drama, with each family member battling their own demons. Rashid (Farhad Aslani) is a dejected prison guard whose innocuous dealings with his prisoners have drawn his superiors’ attention. His eldest daughter, Ensi (Laleh Marzban), is attempting to balance her ongoing health issues with her lifelong dream of becoming an actress. The youngest daughter, Janan (Elena Khakbazan), once the binding glue of the family, is now suffering at school as her bullies have discovered what he father does for a living. Despite outward attempts to present harmony, the family is crumbling from the inside.
To make matters worse, their family home is just days away from being demolished by court order so the government of Tehran can launch an extensive construction project across their land. This looming threat of demolition serves two strong purposes in Gharei’s film: most obviously, it’s effectively a countdown for Rashid, his wife, and their children to sort out their personal issues before it’s too late. More importantly, the house’s gradual, methodical deconstruction mirrors the toxicity and vitriol lurking behind this troubled family’s warm facade.
The first twenty minutes of “Falling House” unfold like any other family drama. Gharei and Abdi’s screenplay switches repeatedly between these characters, gently letting audiences into their struggles and methodically setting the framework for the drama that’s to come. We’re right there with Ensi when she receives her diagnosis; we’re in the room with Rashid when he’s berated for financial misconduct, and we’re flies on the wall as Ensi and Janan discuss the latter’s educational struggles with her headteacher. The film offers a natural, authentic approach to filmmaking, placing the camera in these rooms during formative moments and letting them play out.
Once these family tensions reach an irreparable boiling point, however, the film’s stylistic approach changes completely. The moment comes when Rashid learns of his eldest daughter’s plans to leave the country and join a prestigious modeling agency; to say he doesn’t take the news well would be a colossal understatement. What follows for the next ninety minutes is a harrowing, chilling depiction of what happens when parental control, masculine pride, and lack of communication reach their most dangerous levels, with this entire family dynamic splitting apart at the core.
There are a lot of moments in “Falling House” that are genuinely difficult to watch, and its enduring cynicism will almost certainly be too much for some audiences. What begins as an endearing—if challenging and upsetting—family drama quickly morphs into a showcase of humanity’s worst. Rashid’s increasingly desperate attempts to keep his family under control and mold his wife and daughters to his own wishes are truly disturbing. Still, it’s also clear that pushing this violence and coercion into the spotlight is the film’s true intention. “Falling House” pulls no punches in its depictions of domestic abuse and social unrest, and there’s something admirable about how dramatically and abrasively it leans into this tone.
That said, “Falling House” isn’t without its flaws. Despite Gharei and Abdi’s attempts to keep their screenplay fresh and exciting, the film’s limited locations and self-contained storytelling do ultimately hinder it from reaching its true potential. Once “Falling House” reaches its obvious turning point with Rashid’s gradual mental decline, the entire film takes place within the four walls of his family home—and there’s only so much that can be done from a storytelling perspective to keep raising the stakes as the writers clearly intend. What ensues is a story that’s constantly trying to grow in scale but remains grounded and restricted by self-imposed narrative restraints.
Ultimately, it’s the deeply human and vulnerable performance that saves “Falling House” from its repetitive spiral. Farhad Aslani is dominant and ferocious in this lead role. Despite his character’s wicked, irredeemable actions, his emotional range consistently ensures viewers understand his actions even if they can’t condone or empathize with them. Laleh Marzban, Rima Raminfar, and Elena Khakbazan are equally affecting; Raminfar displays a level of emotional vulnerability that’s truly astonishing. Her character’s suffering is loud, brash, and constant, which helps the film get under the viewer’s skin and repeatedly question what could have brought this seemingly happy family to this self-destructive state. Thankfully, “Falling House” isn’t afraid to answer this central question—even if it leaves the audience cold and appalled.
