.png){kind=logo}
In recent weeks, as Iran’s supreme leader has unusually acknowledged that thousands of protesters were killed amid a nationwide crackdown, the Islamic Republic has appeared to turn inward once again, sealing off communications and retreating into repression.
For Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, now in his fourth decade of rule, this posture reflects a long-standing logic: survival through isolation, control and force. Yet the scale of unrest and the regime’s own admission this weekend of mass violence have made questions about its durability feel newly immediate.
It is within this atmosphere of silence, disconnection and institutional paralysis that Canada-based Iranian filmmaker Abdolreza Kahani is setting his latest feature, “Empty Heaven,” a dark comedy imagining what happens when the machinery of power abruptly stops responding even to those who serve it.
Set against a moment of apparent institutional collapse, the film centers on a group of Islamic Republic–affiliated agents operating in Canada who suddenly find themselves cut off from Tehran. In possession of a highly valuable military-grade component, they are left in limbo as sanctions bite and all channels of communication with Iran go dark.
“No institution responds. The regime appears to be collapsing,” Kahani explained. “Faced with this sudden vacuum of power and purpose, the agents decide to sell the component themselves and divide the money, hoping to secure a comfortable life and disappear from the system altogether.”
Shot from mid-November until Jan. 10, the film is currently in the editing stage, with Kahani aiming to complete a first cut in time for submission to major international festivals.
The director described the current moment in his home country as a decisive rupture. “Yes, the protests feel different this time. For me, the real turning point was the killing of Mahsa Amini. In that moment, the regime effectively lost its legitimacy. After that, something fundamental changed in Iran, and society crossed a line it cannot go back from. Since then, the Islamic Republic has remained in power not through consent, but through intensified repression. The protests are no longer about reform or demands; they are about outright rejection. Even when protests are crushed, that shift within society remains and does not disappear.”
“While developing ‘Empty Heaven,’ I kept asking myself what kind of film feels necessary at this particular moment,” Kahani told Variety. The director – whose previous film “Mortician” won the Sean Connery Award for best film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and was praised by Variety for its “droll-to-devastating approach” – said many subjects he had previously explored no longer aligned with the present historical moment.
“As an Iranian filmmaker in open opposition to the Islamic Republic, who has been forced to live and work outside Iran for many years due to censorship and the banning of my films, I felt many subjects, although important, no longer aligned with the current historical moment.
I was seeing clear signs of the regime’s potential collapse and felt that cinema should be able, at least to some extent, to anticipate what lies ahead,” he said. “This led me to develop a story centered on the possible collapse of the Islamic Republic, while maintaining the darkly comic tone of my recent work,” he added.
The project continues Kahani’s commitment to what he calls ‘One Man Cinema.’ “In this approach, aside from the actors appearing on screen, I am responsible for the writing, directing, cinematography, sound recording, and overall production,” he explained. “This is not a budget-driven choice, but a creative one. It allows for complete independence, focus, and accountability to the work itself.”
That independence proved key to the film’s financing. “I deliberately chose not to seek external financial support and am making ‘Empty Heaven’ using the Sean Connery Award of £15,000 [$20,000] I received at Edinburgh,” Kahani noted. “This is essential to the political clarity and creative freedom of the film.”
“After receiving the award, ‘Mortician’ has screened, and continues to screen, at many major international festivals, which further encouraged me to pursue this path,” he added.
For “Empty Heaven,” Kahani assembled a cast drawn from actors he has been training since July across several Canadian cities. The cast includes Nima Sadr, who again takes the lead after starring in Kahani’s two previous films, alongside Pouya Razavi, Hamidreza Hosseini and Hanieh Barghaei. The film was shot across the country in Montreal, Calgary, Toronto, and Ottawa.
“I am glad to be working on a project with this subject matter at this particular moment,” he said, “and I hope it can contribute, even in a small way, to conversations around freedom and responsibility, not only for Iranians but for a wider global audience.”
English (US) ·