A person holds a picture of directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha, on the day of the screening of the movie “My Favourite Cake” (“Keyke mahboobe man”) at the 74th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

A romantic drama about an elderly couple who share a night together to escape their loneliness has landed its Iranian directors with legal charges and pressure to stop its release internationally.

The feel-good movie called My Favourite Cake has been lauded on the festival circuit and appeared in cinemas in more than a dozen countries at the end of 2024.

With favourable reviews mounting and more international releases expected in the coming weeks, Tehran-based directors Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha are facing rising intimidation from Iranian authorities.

“They want us to stop the release of the film in different countries,” Mr. Sanaeeha said. After forces from the Revolutionary Guards raided their office in 2023, the pair were charged with “propaganda against the regime”, “spreading the libertinism and prostitution” and breaking Islamic law with “vulgarity”.

Other acclaimed Iranian directors from Jafar Panahi to Mohammad Rasoulof, who fled Iran last year, have faced similar pressure.

Subtle and moving, My Favourite Cake defies Iran’s strict censorship rules with its intimate portrayal of everyday life — something the director couple knew was a risk.

“From the beginning, we knew that it was going to have consequences for us,” Mr. Sanaeeha continued. “Not only me and Maryam … The actors are now on trial, the same as us, with less charges, but they are in the same case.”

The film touches on many sensitive issues for Iran’s Islamic regime, portraying a couple that remembers life before the social restrictions brought in following the 1979 revolution.