*Holiday Link* THE NIGHT -Shahab Hosseeini Thriller Opens Jan. 29th via IFC Midnight

*OFFICIAL SELECTION – SANTA BARBARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION – SITGES FILM FESTIVAL*

From the executive producers of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE NIGHT is a suspenseful thriller that unfurls the story of a young Iranian family living in the US. This is the directorial debut from Iranian filmmaker Kourosh Ahari and is crossing the historic benchmark of being the first US-produced film to receive distribution in Iran in four decades. Following a tense night out with friends, Babak (played masterfully by Iranian superstar Shabab Hossein, winner of Best Actor at the 2016 Cannes Film Festivali), and Neda (Niousha Jafarian) and their infant daughter find themselves spending the night in a hotel. As a malevolent energy torments the family, Babak and Neda’s deeply guarded secrets are summoned from their dark hiding places. THE NIGHT will not end until they confront the truth within themselves. IFC Midnight will release THE NIGHT on Friday, January 29, 2021 in select theatres and on digital and VOD platforms.

SYNOPSIS – THE NIGHT is a psychological thriller that follows an Iranian couple, Babak and Neda, and their one-year-old daughter, Shabnam. Returning home from a friend’s gathering, Babak drives drunkenly, too stubborn to let Neda drive with a suspended license. When Babak’s driving threatens the safety of the family, Neda insists they stay the night at a hotel. Once they check in, Babak and Neda find themselves imprisoned and forced to face the secrets they’ve kept from each other. And though the clock moves forward, “the night” never ends.

ABOUT THE PRODUCTION – THE NIGHT went into production in the US in 2018, at the onset of Trump’s Iran sanctions imposition, employing an incredibly diverse cast and crew made up of predominantly Iranian immigrants who are legal citizens/green card holders, or US-born Iranian-Americans. All department heads leading the production, from production through post, are Iranian or of Iranian descent. THE NIGHT employed Iranians in leadership roles in all key creative positions above and below the line, both lead acting roles, while being US-produced.

Iranians are so underrepresented, they are combined with a number of other ethnic backgrounds in both AMPAS’ classifications and the US Census as “Middle Eastern”, despite Iran’s cinema and cultural heritage being one of the most significant in global cinema’s history.

“Remarkable evocation of Kubrickian horror…Hotel Normandie is spiritually linked to The [Shining’s] Overlook Hotel” – RogerEbert.com, Matt Fagerholm

“‘The Night’ is faultlessly performed by Hosseini” – Variety, Richard Kuipers