As women fight for their independence in Iran, the plastic surgery business is simultaneously booming in the nation’s capital, a place whose very architecture is likewise torn down and rebuilt on repeat. Afsaneh Salari’s tender, unjudgmental documentary, heading straight to Adelaide from Toronto International Film Festival, asks what lies behind this social phenomenon.
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2026
Tehran, Under the Skin
Tehran, Under the Skin
Australian Premiere.
Director
Runtime
81 Minutes
Country
Iran
Classification
Unclassified 15+
"Whatever we do to our bodies, we may not feel empowered inside.” So says one wise woman interviewed in Iranian filmmaker Afsaneh Salari’s eye-opening documentary about the plastic surgery epidemic sweeping its way through Tehran’s fashion-conscious population. She wonders aloud if Iranian women have internalised the regime’s brutal insistence that “We are not equal.” Even the surgeons who stand to make a fortune from their insecurities are quick to set realistic expectations on what can and cannot be achieved: “Even God has not created someone completely symmetrical.” Never judgmental, Salari’s hypnotic, TIFF-debuting film blends these to-camera insights and the briefest glimpses of surgical blood with a dreamy, lushly scored quality. As it drifts through Tehran’s towers and tunnels, she asks if the oft-toxic drive to be ‘beautiful’ matches the country’s rise and fall and rise again, in crazy days where the truth is more inscrutable than skin deep.
Film Credits
Director
Afsaneh Salari
Year
2026
Country
Iran
Language
Farsi
Subtitles
English
Type
Feature Documentary
Program Strand
Feature Documentary Competition
Producer
Christian Popp
Cinematographer
Mohamad Hadadi
Editor
Audrey Maurion
Music
Shida Shahabi
Film Source
CAT&Docs
Genre
BIPOC, Documentary, Health & Mindfulness & Women
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