Golshifteh Farahani, the Iranian actress who bewitched French cinema

By Olivier Joyard, 

photos by Natasha Kot , 

styling by Rebecca Bleynie.

Interview with Golshifteh Farahani, star of the film Les Clochettes de Kaboul

“For the gods, my life is like Hunger Games – it never stops. I’m a movie series with no limits.” We’ve been together barely ten minutes when Golshifteh Farahani utters this rather extreme autobiographical statement, portraying herself as a woman addicted to intensity. And meeting the 42-year-old is indeed as exciting as her operatic reputation would suggest.

On leaving her native Iran, in 2008, after a run-in with the authorities, she found refuge in France, where she has built one of those rare careers that are impossible to pigeonhole. As well as shooting Hollywood blockbusters – Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies in 2008 and Exodus: Gods and Kings in 2014; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales in 2017 – and rubbing shoulders with the Zen genius of Jim Jarmusch (Paterson, 2016), she has also dipped her toes into all the different streams of French cinéma d’auteur, from Marjane Satrapi, Louis Garrel, and Christophe Honoré to Alain Chabat, Eva Husson, and Arnaud Desplechin.

She recently ate up the screen in Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, playing a mother trying to protect her daughter from a mysterious virus. “For me, Alpha is one of the best things I’ve done, even if apparently some people didn’t really get it. It’s certainly not the easiest of movies.” During the shoot, Golshifteh Farahani hugely enjoyed working with the Titane director, whose strong personality is legendary. “With some directors, you can have a discussion, suggest ideas. But there’s also something wonderful about abandoning yourself to a woman who knows exactly what she wants and will brook no deviations. With Julia it’s biblical, it’s written in the stones, it’s destiny. She draws you into the world she seeks to create.”

“Something that would break another’s back can happen to me three times in a row and I’m still standing.” – Golshifteh Farahani

Golshifteh Farahani avoids facility like the plague, even if that means taking her share of knocks. “Something that would break another’s back can happen to me three times in a row and I’m still standing. I’m resilient. I lose an arm, a leg, my soul is paraplegic, but I’m a Paralympic champion.”

Nothing seems able to stop the Cartier ambassador in her life of zigzags and upheavals, including the one she says she’s going through right now.

“On the scale of my life, I’m just finishing middle school and am about to start high school. I’ve been feeling the need for change for years. But it’s hard to leave old habits behind. Hard to face losing your status as queen of the playground to become the littlest kid once again. The first book of my life is reaching an end, and it’s time to start the next, which for the moment is a blank page. And that’s frightening.”

“Up till today, I was sometimes motived by duty and the idea of service. Now, I think I’m really coming closer to the life I actually want.” – Golshifteh Farahani

One new tactic to help the hyperactive actor get there is learning to say no. “Up till today, I was sometimes motived by duty and the idea of service. Now, I think I’m really coming closer to the life I actually want. I’d already heard the voice calling, but it was like thunder in the distance. Now it’s right there, overhead, and it’s time for me to act. It’s when you betray your own decisions that life turns against you.”

Shooting films she finds indispensable, with directors capable of pushing her boundaries, but nonetheless not giving up everything for work – this is the new existence she dreams of. “For me, time has become much more precious,” she summarizes. If, for the moment, it’s not a question of taking stock, Farahani nonetheless likes to highlight important stages in her trajectory.

A brillant career in cinema

There was, for example, the meeting with Arnaud Desplechin on Frère et Sœur (2022). “With him it was crazy, I had the impression I was taking part in a workshop. The level of finesse in his way of directing was just beyond!” Golshifteh Farahani also remembers the stage version of Anna Karenina, directed by Gaëtan Vassar in 2016, which marked a turning point for her. “That’s when my hair started going grey. Each night, during the monologue, it was as though I could feel it changing colour.”

The actress, whose parents worked in Tehran’s cultural scene, also crossed paths with the brilliant Abbas Kiarostami (Palme d’or at Cannes in 1997 for Taste of Cherry), with whom she shot Shirin in 2008, a film that showed female faces in the half shadow of a movie theatre. The memory of the great man leads her to talk about the situation in Iran, where the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement has left her anything but indifferent.

“I’ve had no connection to Iranian cinema for a very long time, but, after 18 years of exile, all that interests me is Iran. I find Iranian filmmakers very intelligent, wonderful. What’s happening over there in terms of culture is incredible. I’d like to get to know the new generation. I hope one day, if the regime changes, to run a festival, to give that gift to Iran’s youth and to all the Westerners who haven’t been able to get to know the country, to create a fruitful exchange.”

A sense of adventure guides Golshifteh Farahani, which led her recently to spend time in the Amazon. “I went there to heal,” she sidesteps when asked about her trip. Ibiza is also an essential refuge for her. “I can’t think of anywhere in Europe where so many foreigners come together. Ibiza belongs to everyone.” Is that where she rehearses her roles, in a sort of enchanted bubble before hitting the sound stage? Her reply gives an inkling of her unusual working method.

“Bringing beauty to the world is also bringing goodness,” – Golshifteh Farahani

Even her 13-year relationship with the prestigious French jeweller Cartier is not a simple question of image for Golshifteh Farahani. “Firstly, I have to say I love gold and diamonds. I’m like a magpie attracted to everything that shines. Stones conserve a memory. So, with Cartier, it’s not just a relationship with a brand – working with them is really A Thousand and One Nights. Every event they organize, each dinner, is very carefully thought through. For them and for me, bringing beauty to the world is also bringing goodness.”

She will soon be back in Les Clochettes de Kaboul, a film about resistance toward the Taliban. And after that? Who knows, for nothing is predictable with Golshifteh Farahani – which is no doubt what makes her so unforgettable.

Les Clochettes de Kaboul (2025) by Chabname Zariab does not have a release date yet.