The Westoxicateds

The Westoxicateds is an autobiographical documentary about how forbidden rock songs, in the repressive atmosphere of post-1979 Iran, shaped the teenage minds of filmmaker Gilda Pourjabar and her brother Siamak. Returning to Tehran, she retraces the obstacles and friendships forged in the 1990s while hunting for bootleg cassettes in their residential complex of Ekbatan — once an icon of modernization, later a breeding ground for a rebellious youth culture. Blending personal narrative, archival footage, and doodle animation, it traces the sociopolitical shifts after the Revolution, when the Islamic Republic declared war on "Westoxication": the intoxicating influence of Western culture.