Directing
Set against the turbulent backdrop of Iranian history over the last 40 years, Silent House tracks the fortunes of three generations of an upper-middle-class Iranian family. At the center of the story stands the century-old house in Tehran in which the family lived through both happy and tragic times.
Over one million Afghans live as refugees in neighbouring Iran. For Ismael, Golagha, Kashmir and Nader, the flawed Iranian asylum laws leave them in legal limbo and under constant threat of deportation. To eke out a living, they work as ball boys in Tehran’s upper-class tennis clubs. With observational skill and heartfelt sensitivity, the film shares the reality of their struggles. Golagha and his friends dream of winning a tennis tournament for the substantial prize money. Ismael, the charismatic Bruce Lee look-alike, has the talent to do it but legal barriers and unkind officials pose impossible obstacles. As another way out, the friends seriously ponder the life-threatening journey to an unknown fate in the West. Given the contemporary flood of images of refugees arriving on the shores of Europe, Overruled deals with an important and often overlooked part of the bigger picture, examining refugee struggles in Asia.
