‘The Friend’s House Is Here’ Review: A Touching Tale of Sisterhood Defiantly Celebrates Tehran’s Underground Artists

Sanatate

Artists create not because they’ve been given permission to do so, but simply because they must. This certainty illuminates filmmaking duo Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei ’s Tehran-set drama “The Friend’s House Is Here,” a sophisticated and heroic celebration both of Iran’s brave communities of underground artists who boldly express themselves despite their autocratic government’s attempts to muzzle them, and of the country’s resilient women who recently led the pivotal “Woman, Life, Freedom”