The Night Arezou Disappeared

Incoming Editorial Team·Verified October 22, 2026

During the 2022 protests in Tehran, piano teacher Rana’s teenage sister, Arezou, disappears. With her ex-partner and close friends, Rana searches for her through a long and desperate night, an experience shared by many Iranian families during the Women, Life, Freedom uprising. As the night goes on, they begin to see Arezou in strange, fleeting moments, making it harder to separate what is real from what they fear or remember. When Rana’s conservative sister arrives, tensions inside the family grow, caused by the very different ways the two women have learned to live in Iran.