Laleh Marzban Wins Orizzonti Best Actress Award at Venice Film Festival 2026 for Moragheb (Falling House)
Three generations of Iranian women
One of the most important elements of Mohsen Gharaei’s description of Moragheb is its focus on three generations of women.
The director explains that the film examines different stages in the changing consciousness of Iranian society through these women.
The mother represents a generation that survived by enduring, compromising and accepting suffering as part of life.
Ensi represents a younger generation seeking a different future.
Janan, driven by an unpredictable force, represents another generation with the possibility of creating a new understanding of freedom.
This generational structure gives Laleh Marzban’s performance particular importance.
The actress is not simply portraying an isolated individual.
Her character is part of a larger conversation about the changing aspirations of Iranian women and the conflict between traditional expectations and personal independence.
The film does not reduce these conflicts to a simple division between good and evil.
Instead, it explores how love, fear, responsibility and control can become intertwined.
A parent may believe that control is an expression of care.
A daughter may experience the same control as imprisonment.
A family may believe it is protecting itself while unintentionally preventing its members from pursuing their own lives.
That ambiguity is one of the defining characteristics of Moragheb.
September 12, 2026 | 10:03 pm
