Trapped in the cellar of the family home by her religious and traditional father, a young and helpless girl’s life comes to an abrupt end when her own father decides to kill her for staining the family honour. She is secretly buried in the back room of the cellar, a space where the women of the family weave carpets, unaware of the dark truth that is buried.

Her loss, or perhaps her presence, continues to haunt the family as it reverberates through the generations of women who are curious to know more about her sudden disappearance and the rumours around it.

Banned for more than a decade by the Iranian authorities, The Paternal House is one of the most controversial, refined and breathtaking films of the last twenty years of Iranian cinema with an unforgiving look at the dark and unbearable realities of patriarchy in Iran and a century of unceasing battle of Iranian women to break it.

Born in Ahvaz in 1951, Kianoush Ayari is an Iranian editor, writer, producer and director who began his film career in 1970 when he joined the Free Cinema Group in his hometown, and soon made a name for himself in this experimental movement of amateur cinema during which time he made several 8mm short films.

He began his professional filmmaking career as director with The Monster. In subsequent years Ayari created works of exceptional artistic merit including Beyond the Fire followed by his critically acclaimed To Be or Not To Be. The Paternal House is Ayari’s most contentious work to date and has been banned from public screenings for over a decade.