With her husband in exile because of his fiercely critical writings as a journalist, a pregnant and disbarred human rights lawyer faces every possible opposition and threat to her personal and professional life from the Iranian authorities.

When all her attempts to make sense of her life in the country fail completely, she makes the hard decision to leave her country and tries every conceivable way to acquire a visa. It is only when her personal isolation and desperation reach unbearable heights that she is forced to make the most difficult decision regarding her pregnancy as part of a complex scheme to leave the country.

Set in Tehran, Goodbye is a frightening portrait of a society that is being crushed by the continual control and threats of its religious regime. Shot in secret, this is a gripping and disquieting masterpiece by one of the most acclaimed auteurs of Iranian cinema that captures the climate of fear and suspicion while at the same time creating a deeply compassionate portrait of a woman in crisis.

Born in Shiraz in 1972, Mohammad Rasoulof started his filmmaking career with documentaries while studying sociology at university. His first film, The Twilight, won the Best Film at the Fajr Film Festival in Iran. Following the release of his second film, Iron Island, which premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, he ran into major difficulties with censorship laws in Iran and his opportunities to go on producing and screening films were severely limited by the Iranian authorities.

To date, Mohammad Rasoulof has produced seven feature films, none of which have been screened in Iran due to censorship, even though they have enjoyed wide audiences abroad. Rasoulof’s cinema had originally relied on allegorical narratives as a means for expression and criticism, until 2010 when he decisively opted for a more direct form of engagement. In March 2010, Rasoulof was arrested while directing a project alongside Jafar Panahi. In the subsequent trial, he was sentenced to six years in prison, a sentence that was later reduced to one year. He was then released on bail.

Mohammad Rasoulof has been awarded many accolades for his films. In 2011, he won the Best Director for his film, Goodbye at the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. In 2013, he won the FIPRESCI Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics at Un Certain Regard for Manuscripts Don’t Burn. In 2017, he won the main prize at the Un Certain Regard section for A Man of Integrity. Upon returning to Iran in September 2017, he was officially banned from leaving the country, a verdict which is still in effect. He was accused of ‘endangering national security’ and ‘spreading propaganda against the Islamic government’. He was sentenced to one year in prison and was prohibited from joining any political and social organizations. All these limitations have not stopped Rasoulof from working. His latest film, There Is No Evil, which he made without any official permissions from the Iranian authorities, won the Golden Bear for the best film at the Berlinale Film Festival.

In July 2022, Rasoulof was arrested in the wake of a violent government crackdown, on the pretext of a one-year prison sentence issued for his film, The Man of Integrity. He is still in prison today.