Set far from the familiar rhythms of home, Miss Yaya pairs two of Iran's best-known screen actors, Reza Attaran and Hamid Farrokhnezhad, under writer-director Abdolreza Kahani for a 2018 comedy that drifts between drama and fantasy over a compact 79 minutes.
What is Miss Yaya about?
Two Iranian men find themselves abroad, far outside the routines and rules of home, and their stay stops being a simple trip the moment a local woman known as Miss Yaya enters their orbit. What begins as a holiday tangle slowly turns into something harder to name: a comedy of displacement about men who talk a big game abroad while carrying all their old habits with them. Kahani, who also wrote the screenplay, lets the humour come from awkward encounters and cultural crossed wires rather than set-piece gags, and threads a light fantastical undercurrent through the story that reframes what the two travellers thought they were doing there.
About the cast
Reza Attaran and Hamid Farrokhnezhad, two of the most familiar names in Iranian comedy and drama respectively, share the screen at the heart of the story. Nitaya Chaisriyaya completes the principal cast, a presence that widens the film's world beyond its two stars. Abdolreza Kahani directs from his own script, with Hamid Pandashteh producing.
Context & significance
The film was previously circulated under the longer title We Love You, Miss Yaya before settling on its shorter name. It arrived at a stretch of Abdolreza Kahani's career when each new project of his was followed closely — a background that made every new Kahani release a point of curiosity for Iranian audiences. Reception was rough: the film stands as a niche entry that found few defenders, and that chilly response has itself become part of the film's reputation and a reason many viewers seek it out to judge first-hand.
Watching Miss Yaya on K-Time
Miss Yaya is available to stream on K-Time in its original Persian-language version. Browsing this page is open to everyone; playback simply asks for a K-Time account login, and the service's Farsi-first interface is built for Iranian viewers living outside Iran, on TV, mobile and web alike.