ALTERNATIVE FILM LAB
Redefining Cinema Through the Lens of the Living Moment.
Quotes from critics about Alternative Film Lab’s latest project
Critics’ opinions on the film “Cesarean Weekend”
Clarence Tsui, The Film Verdict
“Having spent the past decade producing raw films from young cineastes, the maverick filmmaker has now returned with something that subverts expectations about narrative, characters and space.”
Marc Bogoslaw, Achssprünge
“Free-spirited Iranian cinema that leaves Panahi and co. in the dust with its playfulness and wild experimentation, but is no less political for that.”
Begoña del Teso, El Diario Vasco
“Cesarean Weekend subverts all our ideas about Iranian cinema, thank goodness.”
Marina Richter, Asian Movie Pulse
“It deep-dives behind the staged picture of Iranian society, sweeping away the standard tropes that international audiences are usually fed. […] ‘Cesarean Weekend’ is a film you won’t easily forget.”
Matthew Joseph Jenner, International Cinephile Society
” […] in addition to the clear queer overtones that are not directly addressed but rather quietly pulsate beneath the surface, the film attempts to provide a stark portrait of fragile masculinity in the modern world.”
Martha Bird, Film Fest Report
“Once again Shirvani breaks cultural taboos with scenes of physical intimacy filmed inside Iran depict images unseen on domestic screens since the 1979 revolution.”
“I prefer, as a filmmaker, to help that imprisoned freedom itself to be released, to be exposed.”
— Interview: Mohammad Shirvani, Arsenal Filminstitut e.V., Forum 2026.
M.shirvani- founder of Alternativefilmlab