Cesarean Weekend

Forum 2026

The mood in the summer villa in northern Iran, near the Caspian Sea, is exuberant. Milad and Armin gather with friends for a weekend shaped by effortless closeness. The news that Bita is pregnant by Milad adds to the fragility of their relationship. The next morning, the hosts’ fathers arrive, each carrying their own fractures. What unfolds is both confrontation and subtle realignment. Generations drift through the house and its thresholds: childhood/parenthood, proximity/withdrawal, desire/responsibility. The villa as a social score of verbal and physical encounters. Cesarean Weekend resists moral judgment. The sea watches; music takes over where language ends. Rather than issuing a political statement, the film traces a parallel social reality – lives unfolding beyond prescribed roles, bound by affection and shifting forms of masculinity. Shirvani’s method is central to this openness: without rehearsals and through live direction from behind the camera, he creates a cinema of presence in which control and improvisation coexist. Bodies are exposed to space and duration; skin becomes a surface of experience before meaning settles.

Trailer/Film Excerpt

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by Mohammad Shirvani (Director, Screenplay)
with Nader Mashayekhi, Peyman Yeganeh, Milad Ahmadzadeh, Armin Shirvani, Bita Jamshidi Iran 2026 Farsi 93' Colour World premiere

With

Nader Mashayekhi
Peyman Yeganeh
Milad Ahmadzadeh
Armin Shirvani
Bita Jamshidi

Crew

Director	Mohammad Shirvani
Screenplay	Mohammad Shirvani
Cinematography	Mohammad Shirvani
Editing	Mohammad Shirvani
Music	Reza Rostamian
Sound Design	Oveis Derakhshan
Casting	Mohammad Shirvani
Producer	Mohammad Shirvani
Executive Producer	Mohammad Shirvani

Produced by

Alternative Film Lab

Teheran, Iran

Photos

Mohammad Shirvani

Mohammad Shirvani, born 1973 in Tehran, is an Iranian independent filmmaker and producer. Since his first short film The Circle was selected for the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes in 1999, he has made over 20 short and feature-length fiction and documentary films. His debut feature Navel (2003) marked a turning point for underground cinema in Iran. His second feature Fat Shaker (2013) won the Tiger Award at the IFFR (Rotterdam). Since 2012, he has supported underground filmmaking in Iran through the Alternative Film Lab in Tehran. His films have screened at major festivals worldwide.

Filmography

1999 The Circle; short film 2000 The Candidate; short film 2001 To Consent; short film · Souvenir; short film 2002 Navel; short film · The Cherries Which Were Canned; short film 2003 Iranian Conserve; short film 2005 The Calm City; short film · President Mir Qanbar 2006 Where Is Leili? 2007 444 Days 2008 Seven Blind Women Filmmakers 2009 Iranian Cookbook 2010 021, Tehran 2011 Telescope 2013 Fat Shaker 2014 Six Eyes; short film 2026 Cesarean Weekend

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2026