The Negative

Mahtab, once one of the four members of an avant-grade theater group in Tehran, migrated to the US fourteen years ago after the imprisonment of Arman, the groups screenwriter and director, in the heat of a social movement. She has now returned only to find her friends isolated, imprisoned, and suffering from mental and physical injuries. On the final night of her visit to Tehran, in the absence of Morteza who is detained, they gather in Malihe’s place and review the past. The three of them imagine the apartment as a stage and perform a banned play.

The film is produced in Iran and aims to give voice to a generation of Iranian artists silenced by censorship and exile. It explores the haunting echoes of a banned play, personal traumas, and collective memory. In the absence of a public stage, the characters reclaim intimacy as resistance—transforming private space into a site of forbidden performance

Categories: Drama