This is NOT OK!

i thought the same about this movie. also none of the filmmakers are iranian. director, writer, producers, not one of them. not saying they all have to be, but you'd think there'd be at least one iranian in a key role to give it some authenticity.

Nazanin Boniadi is the token Iranian in this movie, much like Shohreh Aghdashloo and Golshifteh Farahani were in Rosewater. They only put them in the movies so that when we Iranians complain, the filmmakers can say that they put 1 Iranian in there.

also did anyone notice almost 30% of voters are giving this 10/10 stars? i think the producers are worried about the low score and are trying to get the rating up.

I do agree with rahael and company that there should have been more Iranian actors in this film. It is true that today such idiocies as having Mickey Rooney portray the Japanese Mr. Yumioshi in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" are discredited and that Laurence Olivier in blackface as "Othello" would not be welcomed on the screen. I should mention that there has been criticism recently of casting Gael García Bernal as Iranian Maziar Bahari in "Rosewater." Jon Stewart had to defend his choice on the basis of availability and appeal of a well-known actor. Thinking practically, however, it does seem too rigid to have an actor play characters of his or her real ethnicity. Should Bernal play only Mexicans? Should Leila Hatami portray Iranian women only? That is a problem, as it would totally restrict the range of roles. On the other hand, why paint Alec Guinness brown and have him assume a very comical Indian accent to play the role of Godbole in "A Passage to India?" Now such casting is ridiculous and insulting and to be avoided. Perhaps there should be more balance and verisimilitude achieved by having some leeway, especially if the film is made by an outside company. No one would expect Spanish persons to play main roles in a Farsi language film or Russians in a Chinese film portraying Chinese characters. However, there is a problem if the film is shot in a language other than the actual language of the country. If a French director is making a film in French about Russians, it is probable that some actors of Russian ethnicity would be found in France. But what of the starring role? If there is no celebrated Russian actor available, then the director would have to use a well-known French actor to attract an audience as well as to execute a stellar performance. So one would select an actor who is not Russian who could portray a Russian. In the film "Un prophète," the director was fortunate enough to have a talented actor of Algerian descent play the main role of a North African. However, the Corsican César Luciani is played by Niels Arestrup, of French and Danish ancestry, who speaks Corsican very well in the role. I actually thought that he was Corsican or Italian. In the end, there has to be some adjustment, as long as the actor looks enough like the ethnic character portrayed so as not to appear unbelievable. And, of course, cast as many actors of the actual ethnicity as is possible.

I think it's ok in this case because it's a story about Afshani and the actor playing him seemed like the perfect cast as he not only resembled him very much but was a good dancer and it's highly doubtful whether it would have been possible to make this film by an all Iranian cast due to it's anti-regime message given that they might have been faced with severe repercussions from their morals enforcers.

Apart from that, an actor is supposed to convincingly pretend to be someone he/she is not independent of his actual cultural origins and that's why such demands that only Indians should play Indians etc. are not principally justified.

"Some people are immune to good advice."
-Saul Goodman

"I ignore pathetic trolls"