OUTCRY (BIDAD)
(director/writer: Soheil Beiraghi; cinematographer: Peyman Shadmanfar; editors:
Soheil Beiraghi, Milad Mahdavi; music: Bamdad Afshar; cast: Sarvin Zabetian (Seti), Amir Jadidi (Bebin, bad boy druggie), Leili Rashidi (Homeyra); Runtime: 104; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: Soheil Beiraghi; Alef Pictures; 2025-Iran-in Farsi with English subtitles)
“A finely tuned timely and essential film of the ongoing struggle going on with-in contemporary Iran.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The courageous Iranian filmmaker Soheil Beiraghi (“Cold Sweat”/”Popular”) is director-writer of this lively political film, a risky revolutionary act, that’s shot in a guerrilla style without government permission. It’s about a talented and rebellious young singer with a powerful voice challenging her modern-day repressive Iranian Islamic regime, who won’t let a woman sing solo on stage. The film takes place in Tehran’s counterculture underground, where rebellion brews, weed is smoked and secret concerts take place.
The energetic Seti (Sarvin Zabetian) models herself after the late British pop star Amy Winehouse.
Seti is arrested while singing at an illegal event by the Islamic regime’s vice squad.
She ignores the regime’s attempt to keep her from singing by performing in an alleyway and someone from an apartment balcony records it on a smartphone and posts it online, where it goes viral and the unknown singer becomes the face for Iran’s restless and rebellious youth.
Seti is inspired by the 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not wearing her hijab and was murdered in jail by the police.
We follow Seti’s arrest and her time in jail, and learn about her troubled life when raised by her volatile alcoholic so-called single mom (Leili Rashidi)–who might really be her lesbian lover. And we follow her love relationship with the smoothie but unhinged tattooed weed supplier (Amir Jadidi) after she traumatically develops a stutter during jail time that he helps try to cure.
Seti evolves as a singer who won’t be silenced, and becomes a public figure in a Tehran that has a diverse population and many non-conformists that oppose its rigid and repressive extremist Islamic regime. It shows the West characters we don’t usually associate with today’s Iran but who exist underground.
“Outcry” is a finely tuned timely and essential film of the ongoing struggle going on with-in contemporary Iran.
It played at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 7/19/2025 GRADE: B+
dennisschwartzreviews.com