Paradise City Sales has secured worldwide sales rights to Iranian director Mohsen Gharaei's new feature "Falling House", which will have its world premiere in the Horizons section at the Venice Film Festival. The film is Gharaei's follow-up to "Blockage", a 2017 drama that won best film at Busan and also screened at Rotterdam and Munich, and this new work is being positioned as a timely allegory for oppression in contemporary Iran.

"Falling House" centres on a family on the outskirts of Tehran whose home faces demolition under a redevelopment scheme, while the father, a prison guard accused of corruption, learns his daughter is secretly planning to leave the country to become a model. CAA Media Finance handles US rights, and the film brings together an international team including composer Max Richter, editor Evelyn Rack and sound designer Ansgar Frerich, with producers including Oscar winner Odessa Rae and executive producer Jon Kilik. Producer Milad Khosravi said the script was completed before Iran's recent turmoil but now feels "painfully prophetic" given the country's ongoing war and long-standing repression.