Tehran, Under the Skin

Iran’s capital Tehran is one of the world’s epicenters for cosmetic surgery: nose jobs, tummy tucks, face lifts, liposuction, and more. Filmmaker Afsaneh Salari embeds herself in the offices of two thriving surgeons to understand the motivations of their patients. She brings curiosity, humour, and empathy to her queries. She’s tapping into global trends as social media makes the whole world body-conscious. But she’s especially attuned to local characters. She wonders how Iran has been shaped by political forces, including the restrictive mandatory hijab laws vs the resistant Woman, Life, Freedom movement.

Salari grew up in Tehran, but now lives in France. She’s both an insider and an outsider as she interviews plastic surgery clients (predominantly women) who describe what compels them to go under the knife. Previously, Salari produced the poignant TIFF ‘24 documentary A Sister’s Tale, exploring societal pressures on women.

Her approach to filming in the operating room is sparing and stylish. She needs to acknowledge what it means to cut into the body, but she keeps it less gory than The Pitt. Plastic surgery might feel superficial in times when Iranians take to the streets to protest fundamentalism and suffer U.S. and Israeli bombardment. Those threats of violence lurk in the background. But one achievement of the film is to treat Iranians as individuals, not as the monolith portrayed in western media. They are as preoccupied with identity, agency, and pressures placed on the body as anyone else. Salari gets under their skin while holding up a mirror to any viewer.

THOM POWERS

Content advisory: scenes of surgery