From Tehran’s Comedy Stages to Czech Documentary Screens
TEHRAN -- Iran’s comedy-theatre sector generated approximately 300 billion tomans in ticket revenue during the first six months of 1405 on the Iranian calendar, equivalent to roughly U.S.$1.6 million at an estimated six-month average open-market exchange rate.
Around 500,000 tickets were sold over the period, according to figures reported by the Iranian Students News Agency (IRNA).
Online ticketing platform CinemaTicket accounted for approximately 400,000 tickets, representing around 88 percent of online ticket sales in the category, according to the reported figures.
The strongest-selling productions included Gestapo, Tehran–Istanbul, The Walking Dead, Raddi-ha and Money Laundering. These titles ranked among the leading comedy performances by sales, reflecting the continued appeal of accessible, audience-oriented theatre.
The venues leading the reported sales rankings were Kourosh Theatre and Cinema Complex, Bam Theatre, Hafez Theatre in Tehran, Hamila Center and Saba Mall.
September 2026 also brought a fresh wave of comedy productions to the stage. Crocodile, Zari Khanom’s Coffeehouse, Janab and Relatively Tame Animals joined the performance schedule and attracted audiences, contributing to the sector’s box-office activity.
The figures suggest that comedy remains a major draw for Iranian theatre audiences, providing an important commercial foundation for live performance.
Hadi Hejazifar’s The Visit Returns to the Screen
The 21st International Tehran–Mubarak Puppet Theatre Festival will present filmed versions of two puppet productions, The Visit and Chaos in the Glass Palace, on Saturday, at the Cinematheque of the Iranian Artists Forum’s Museum of Contemporary Art venue, as identified in the Persian-language announcement.
The screening of The Visit, directed by Iranian actor and filmmaker Hadi Hejazifar, will be attended by the director.
Based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s renowned play The Visit, the puppet production centers on Claire Zachanassian, a wealthy woman who returns to her hometown after many years away. The townspeople, struggling with economic hardship, see her arrival as a possible route out of their difficulties. Her return, however, brings the community face to face with questions of morality, desperation and the price of prosperity.
Hejazifar has a background in puppet theatre, having studied puppetry at the University of Tehran and completed a master’s degree in directing at Tarbiat Modares University.
His early work in the field included The Circle, which was recognized at a student puppet-theatre festival. In 2006, he received an award for the outstanding production of Romeo and Juliet at the International Mubarak–UNIMA Puppet Theatre Festival.
His production of The Visit was staged at the 15th International Tehran–Mubarak Puppet Theatre Festival in 2014, where it was named an outstanding production.
The work brings together a broad creative team. Hejazifar shares the adaptation with Sholeh Mohammadi, while the production’s artistic and technical credits include costume designer Mozhgan Ayvazi, puppet makers Fatemeh Soozangar, Akram Sanei, Saeedeh Ramezanzadeh and Sajjad Hashemi, and makeup designer Afsaneh Gholizadeh.
The program also features Journey to the West, an international production by Taiwan’s Taipei Puppet Theatre Group. Written by Chieh-Sheng Wu and directed by Yong-Chi Lin, the 60-minute performance draws on
traditional Taiwanese puppetry techniques and musical instruments.
Its story begins with the Buddha Tathagata encountering a stone while walking. Touched by his blood and influenced by the essence of the sun and moon, the stone eventually gives birth to a monkey who becomes king of the monkeys. The production offers a glimpse of the storytelling traditions that shape Taiwanese puppet theatre and the festival’s international program.
The two filmed productions, The Visit and Chaos in the Glass Palace, are scheduled for 3–5 p.m. on October 10. The festival, directed by artistic curator Poopak Azimzadeh Tabrizi, is taking place in Tehran during October 2026.
Third Land Heads to Ji.hlava
Iranian filmmaker Farzad Khoshdast will present his documentary Third Land at the 30th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, according to the film’s publicity announcement. International distribution is handled by Dori Rezaei.
The documentary follows an Iranian family who left Iran and spent more than a decade living in Turkey, waiting for the opportunity to resettle in another country. Their prolonged uncertainty becomes the starting point for a wider examination of migration, displacement and the difficult decisions facing those who have left their homeland.
Beyond the years spent waiting for a new destination, Third Land explores the question of returning to Iran and the circumstances that prevent some migrants from making that journey home.
Filming and post-production took approximately two years, with the shoot taking place in Turkey. The film is a co-production of the Czech company Media Nest and France’s Image de l’Orient.
The documentary is scheduled to compete at the 30th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, which is due to run from 23 October to 1 November 2026. The festival is widely recognized as an important meeting point for documentary filmmaking in Central and Eastern Europe.
For Khoshdast, the selection follows the international festival journey of his earlier documentary The Narrow Red Line. With its focus on a family caught between departure and return, Third Land turns a personal experience into a broader reflection on belonging, uncertainty and the meaning of home.