Golshifteh Farahani, presiding over the 51st Deauville American Film Festival this month, is using the platform to reflect on life in exile and to champion a new generation of Iranian filmmakers, while balancing an arthouse turn in Julia Ducournau’s Alpha with the prospect of returning to the action franchise that broadened her global profile. In a Deauville interview flagged by industry press, she discussed the personal cost of leaving Iran and her admiration for emerging voices from her home country, and noted that work continues to line up on both sides of the Atlantic.
Farahani’s summer included a career honor at Locarno, where she received the festival’s Excellence Award Davide Campari and spoke about art as a refuge. “Let’s take refuge in cinema. Together, through culture and art, we can make this world a better place,” she told the Piazza Grande crowd, as the festival also showcased Alpha, in which she plays a doctor and single mother in a plague-shadowed coming-of-age drama. Neon holds North American rights after a pre-Cannes deal, and the film opened in France on August 20 following its Competition premiere in May.
Her remarks on exile echo a long public record: after appearing without a head covering in 2008’s Body of Lies, Farahani left Iran and has since lived and worked in Europe and the U.S., including collaborations with Asghar Farhadi on About Elly that helped define her international rise. Those experiences shape her view of today’s Iranian cinema, where filmmakers continue to navigate bans, arrests and travel restrictions while still breaking through at major festivals.
On the commercial front, Farahani’s breakout as fixer Nik Khan in Netflix’s Extraction films remains a live thread. A third installment is in development without a dated release, while a TV spinoff is building out the universe with new casting and creative leadership. Farahani has signaled enthusiasm about continuing that world even as she pursues auteur-driven projects such as Alpha.
