“I’m looking for the grown-up underwear of a woman in charge of her sexuality and not afraid of change.”
This year at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Iranian-American filmmaker Desiree Akhavan will debut her first feature film, Appropriate Behavior. Set in Brooklyn, N.Y., the film follows Akhavan's character, Shirin, as she attempts to get over her ex and simultaneously come out as bisexual to her very traditional Persian family.
"With family, romantic partners and even work, by simply being herself, she will always be inappropriate," says Akhavan of film's title. Shirin is a girl who is "not quite Persian enough, not quite gay enough, not quite anything enough." And the film somehow manages to work with the coming-out narrative in a refreshingly honest (and hilarious) manner — without a hint of cliché or cheesiness.
Akhavan is pulling off a hat trick for her first film; acting as writer, director, and actor.
“It felt like the right time and the right story. I always knew I wanted to direct, that was a non-negotiable," explains Akhavan.
