A family crisis reunites an estranged mother and daughter in Director Maryam Keshavarz’s comedic drama, The Persian Version.

Keshavarz’s film tells the story of Leila, an Iranian American woman who strives to find balance and embrace her opposing cultures. When her large family gathers in New York City for her father’s heart transplant, a family secret is uncovered that catapults Leila and her mother Shireen into an exploration of the past.

On November 25, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Keshavarz discussed the making of The Persian Version during a Q&A moderated by Director Crystal Moselle (Skate Kitchen).

During the conversation, Keshavarz spoke about using film techniques to unify the look for her movie that jumps between years and nations.

“I knew that the daughter had a voice and a style, the grandmother had a voice in a style, and the mother had a voice and a style. They were from different genres so the daughter is more influenced by sitcoms, the grandmother’s like a spaghetti western and the mother is like accurate neo realist but you still have to make it cohesive. So, it was this idea of, ‘Hey I want that to be different genres and different fields yet it has to be the same film. So how do we do that? How do we make it feel different but the same?’ So we use the same lens for all the different eras. We didn't change any lighting. We tried to keep it very consistent through those different those different genres, but we played with genre quite a bit. And the character is a filmmaker so I thought how fun that we can use all of these tools at our disposal and just have no boundaries. I really was about being playful.”

Keshavarz’s other directorial credits include the feature films Viper Club and Circumstance and episodes of Queen Sugar and All Rise. She has been a DGA member since 2017.