'The Persian Version' Movie Ending Explained: Will Leila Reconcile With Shireen?

Maryam Keshavarz’s The Persian Version is made to feel like a warm Persian patchwork quilt, bursting at the seams with vivid colors, diverse cultures, and a motley of characters. Whether it is the way the young child smuggled cassettes of Michael Jackson to Iran or the varying loudness of the household with eight boys and a feisty girl, the film runs like a kitschy personal family album. At the heart of the mad concoction is a coming-of-age story of a woman whose motherhood really is a way to understand her own mother. Even without their interpersonal relationship, it is the story of two Iranian women growing up as immigrants in America. The story, even if deeply personal, is underpinned by the political relations of Iran and the US, which have only grown stagnant over the years. What also emerges as a central concern is the way identities on the fringes—from lesbian relationships to drag queens—are juxtaposed against family traditions.

Spoilers Ahead

Why do Leila and her mother not get along?

Leila, the protagonist, has a difficult time getting along with her Persian mother. Leila’s American way of life, her lesbian marriage, and her filmmaking profession are all too jarring for the culturally rooted Shireen. Her heavy-handed parenting is outrageous for Leila. So, when Leila gets married to her girlfriend, Elena, on the day of her grandfather’s anniversary, Shireen is livid. To Shireen, this act is a direct assault on the respectable lineage of her family. The mother throws the couple out of the house, which causes resentment to grow in Leila. Leila, however, imagines her grandfather to be a progressive gentleman. Her unafraid self-expression, if anything, would be a way of honoring her poet grandfather’s legacy. Shireen rebukes Leila again for putting her own father’s life in jeopardy, who has a weak heart and is about to undergo a heart transplant. Leila is yet to find out that her mother’s position is not entirely in alignment with their history. The family has been carefully securing their skeletons in the closet for many years, and it is only a moment away till they tumble out in full view. 

What is the scandal that Mamanjoon talked about?

In 1967, Leila’s parents left Iran when the U.S. government was wrung dry of doctors after the Vietnam War. The US government then recruited doctors from Iran to work in the inner cities; that is how the family came to be inhabitants of New Jersey. However, Mamanjoon, Leila’s grandmother, reveals that she might not know the entire picture. The mention of the scandal continues to crop up time and again in Leila’s mind until she sits with Mamanjoon for a heart-to-heart chat again. What also rings in her ears are Mamanjoon’s words that Leila has taken after her arch-nemesis, Shireen, in a lot of ways. The daughter’s supposedly scandalous way of living matches up to her mother’s past. Leila’s headstrong career choice mirrors her mother’s own perseverance to learn something new after becoming a mother and grow to be a real estate agent. When her husband, Ali Reza, suffered from heart failure, Shireen searched for work without ever endangering her children’s education. However, Mamanjoon’s way of drawing connections between the two does not stop at that. 

In the 1960s, Shireen became the mother to the child of a young doctor, Ali Reza, in Iran when she was only thirteen years old. She helped her husband in the local health center, where she struck up a friendship with a woman named Roya. The secret about Roya came out much later when Shireen found out that she was the first wife of her husband. Following that, the affair was made out to be a scandal in the local community of Iran. Soon, the couple, Ali Reza and Shireen, had to leave their place and migrate to America. The story of the shortage of doctors, therefore, has served as a good cover-up for the longest time, due to its convenient timing. After Roya’s death, Shireen was entrusted with the responsibility of Roya’s son, Vahid. The grown-up Vahid turns out to be an addict. However, Shireen is never critical of him the way she was with Leila. This is later brought up by Leila.

Will Leila reconcile with Shireen?

At Vahid’s wedding reception party, Leila’s brothers, Abbas and Shiva, encourage her to let go of the anger she holds against her mother. Leila confronts Shireen over the identity of Vahid and her preferential treatment of him. While others storm the dance stage, Leila leaves the party in the middle. However, soon, she goes into labor and admits herself to the hospital without any family. Upon learning of Leila’s labor, Shireen leaves for the hospital, followed by her brothers and Max, the drag queen and the father to Leila’s child. The family cheers loudly for Leila by her bed and encourages her to scream out the child. After the child is born, Shireen holds the child and tearfully apologizes to Leila for her behavior. The child, named Arezoo, is the realization of the unfulfilled dreams of her mother and her Mamanjoon, Shireen. 

Shireen’s hidden ‘scandal’ story brings new awareness to Leila, who is on the cusp of a reckless, young girlhood and the uncertain future of a new motherhood with newer responsibilities. For Shireen, on the other hand, witnessing Leila become a mother at such a young age is a way to reconnect with her daughter, who she has ignored for too long. With eight growing brothers, Leila, the youngest, always came as a support to her mother. Shireen had very limited time to nurture Leila as the young girl that she is and required Leila to work as her assistant, whether personally or professionally. The ending of the film marks the beginning of a new bond between the mother and daughter, and it is implied that the change is for the better.

The story of Leila and Shireen is an ode to the fierceness of Iranian women who have to traverse the changing political currents of their family, society, and the states at large of which they are citizens. Shireen, especially, has had to adjust herself to both the cultures of Iranian society and American society. 

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