Sundance review: 'The Friend's House Is Here' is a joyous story of friendship, and an insistent reminder of the fragility of artistic freedom

You may not find two better friends, and more liberated creative spirits, than Pari and Hanna, who share an apartment and rehearsal space in Tehran’s underground art scene — and the first of many surprises in “The Friend’s House Is Here” is that there is an underground art scene under the nose of Iran’s repressive regime.

Pari (Mahshad Bahram) is a playwright who creates her works outside the view of Iran’s official censors. The play she’s making as the film starts has Pari frantically contacting all her friends, because her best pal Hanna (Hana Mana) has gone missing — possibly in the regime’s custody. Hanna is in the front of the audience watching this play, and at the afterparty admits that she didn’t understand it all, except the parts about her.

Hanna seems like a likely target for the regime’s oppression. She has more than 100,000 followers on Instagram, where she posts videos that show her dancing in front of world landmarks. She has applied for a visa to leave Tehran for Paris. And she stays up all night chatting with Ali (Farzad Karen), a video editor who — if you read between the lines a bit — is slowly becoming Hanna’s boyfriend.

Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei, the husband-and-wife team that wrote and directed this subsersively joyous film, follow Pari and Hanna as they hang out in cafes and go shopping at the mall — and only once get harassed because they don’t wear the hijab. One could easily edit their scenes together as a gal-pal comedy, without the constant tension that we’re in Tehran, where the axe of oppression may fall at any time.

Bahram and Mana deliver a twinned pair of strong performances, as the oh-so-serious Pari and the vivacious Hanna work to keep their artistic voices and their cluster of collaborative friends intact. They make “The Friend’s House Is Here” both a charming story of true friendship and an urgent reminder of how important and how fragile artistic freedom can be.

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‘The Friend’s House Is Here’

★★★1/2

Screening in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Not rated, but probably PG-13 for suggestions of violence and sensuality. Running time: 97 minutes; in Farsi with subtitles.

The film screens again: Sunday, Jan. 25, 4:40 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 2, Park City; Friday, Jan. 30, 8:10 p.m., Redstone Cinemas 2, Park City; Sunday, Feb. 1, 6:45 p.m., Holiday Village Cinemas 1, Park City. Also screening on Sundance’s web portal, Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 29 to Feb. 1.