The Dinner Party
Director: Neda Jebelli
Iran, 2023, 13 min
Shooting Format:Digital
Festival Year:2023
Category:Narrative Short
Genres:Comedy, Drama
Cast:Nazanin Farahani, Nafiseh Zare, Shaghayegh Shourian, Mahoor Mirzanejad, Nava Nemati, Sarah Sajjadi, Pooneh Parsaie
Crew:Producer: Reza Baastani Cinematographer: Amirhossein Khoshbin Editor: Andrew Stephen Lee
Email:nedajebelli@gmail.com
Web:nedajebelli.com
Synopsis
In Tehran, a perfectionist mother has planned the perfect engagement dinner party for her daughter. But when the cake is held up in the traffic of a political protest, her meticulous party begins to unravel. The film takes place entirely in the kitchen with the women, behind the scenes of the party, as their pleasantries and “tarofs“ slowly crumble. Within this domestic microcosm, the power shifts begin to strangely echo those of the outside world.
About the director
Neda Jebelli is a filmmaker based between Brooklyn and Tehran. As an Iranian-American and a leftist, she has always been interested in telling stories about outsiders through a comedic, satirical, and often surrealist lens.
This short is Neda's directorial debut. As a writer, her work has played internationally at festivals like Venice, Montreal, Clermont-Ferrand, Telluride, Tribeca, Palm Springs, SXSW, and more.
Neda received an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University. She is currently a Script Coordinator at The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and previously taught both undergraduate screenwriting and expository writing at Columbia University.
Before transitioning into film, Neda worked as an architectural drafter, a Subway sandwich artist, and a tour guide in a French château.