DIVINE COMEDY (KOMEDIE ELAHI) World Cinema

Notable Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari (co-director of TERRESTRIAL VERSES, AFI FEST 2023) blurs the lines between fiction and reality / cinema and truth in his latest feature, DIVINE COMEDY. Featuring rival filmmaker twins Bahram and Bahman Ark (as themselves), Bahram has just completed his newest film with producing and romantic partner Sadaf (Asgari, as her namesake). However, due to the film’s use of his native tongue Turkish-Azeri, they’ve been denied a local screening permit from the Ministry of Culture, again. Over the course of a single day, we follow Bahram and Sadaf — mostly on the back of her pink Vespa — through the streets of Tehran on a mission tinged with cinematic urgency: to screen their film in its original language…at home. Pure comedy ensues as the charming pair whisk from venue to venue in search of a willing party to host an underground screening of their banned film. With DIVINE COMEDY, Asgari continues to tackle themes of artistic expression and government censorship, this time commenting on the film industry as a whole — and slyly expanding the very notion of self-awareness in cinema. –Julia Kipnis