Independent Film: A Simple Wedding
A Simple Wedding stars Iranian husband and wife acting legends Shohreh Aghdashloo and Houshang Touzie, alongside new-comer Tara Grammy, whose character, Nousha, is an Iranian-American girl living in California with a habit of sabotaging her relationships and frustrating her parents.
“In this film you have an Iranian-American woman clashing with her traditional parents who want her to marry someone they approve of,” says Maz Jobrani who plays Nousha’s uncle visiting from Iran, Saman.
Executive produced by Rita Wilson (who also stars in the film) and Shohreh Aghdashloo, A Simple Wedding is a relatable and current tale of a modern Iranian-American girl and the obstacles she must overcome to be with someone she loves that is non-Iranian.
Directed and co-written by Sara Zandieh, the synopsis reads: Nousha meets Alex, a bisexual artist, activist and DJ, living in an old warehouse. Nousha and Alex fall in love and move in together. When her parents find out they’ve been cohabitating before committing to marrying one another, chaos ensues which leads to a not-so-simple wedding.
As Nousha is her family’s only hope for a real Persian wedding, Nousha’s parents, grandmother (played by the hilarious Jaleh Modjallel), and uncle bring the laughter as the story unfolds and the bi-cultural familial dynamics take over when her maman and baba want her to have a traditional aroosi (Persian: wedding).
“It’s important to tell these types of stories,” Maz tells us, “because they are a reflection of our times.
“We no longer live in the days when everyone had to marry within their own culture. We live in a diverse world and movies and art should reflect that. My own family is cross-cultural as my wife was born in India.”
A Simple Wedding will be in theaters and available on VOD February 14th, 2020.
