Female Film Critics 24/375
“I can’t sleep until you get married.” So says Ziba (Shohreh Aghdashloo) to her daughter, Nousha (Tara Grammy). Nousha is not a youngster; she’s an adult who knows her own mind and her own needs… and she has no desire to get married. Certainly not to any of the dull and conservative Iranian men her mom keeps trying to arrange for her.
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If you were to blend My Big Fat Greek Wedding with The Big Sick — and add a dash of Crazy Rich Asians — you might end up with something close to A Simple Wedding, Sara Zandieh‘s entertaining romcom about a thirtysomething Iranian American woman who wants to find love on her own terms.
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As Hollywood moves to course correct in wake of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, Iranian-American director Sara Zandieh checks off a lot of requisite boxes, especially the one marked: TALENTED. After changing her career from journalism to writing and directing narrative films, each of her stepping stones has been a milestone.
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Let’s be honest. There’s really no such thing as a simple wedding. Writer/director Sara Zandieh drives this home in her new rom-com A Simple Wedding, starring the gorgeous and hilarious Tara Grammy. I love seeing films by women that center on women coming from or representing other cultures. It brings me such joy to see an American comedy about an Iranian-American woman, with Iranian co-stars. Even better is having an intergenerational story with three Iranian women, especially when one is learning to balance both American and Iranian cultures in her own life. A Simple Wedding is a wonderful peek into one Iranian family’s experience choosing to live with varying degrees of assimilation while celebrating their own cultural traditions.
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Love finds you when you least expect it in Sara Zandieh’s hilarious feature debut, A Simple Wedding, inspired by Hafez, Persia’s celebrated 14th century poet known for his lyrical writings about the joys of wine and romance. Zandieh directs from a well-crafted script she co-wrote with Stephanie Wu that melds romantic comedy with cultural conflict to reveal how love, tolerance, trust and understanding can transcend cultural differences, gender bending stereotypes, old grudges, and misguided assumptions about each other.
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