Mohammad-Ali Talebi

Mohammad-Ali Talebi is an Iranian screenwriter and film director whose career has spanned more than four decades. His films have been screened at major international film festivals, including Berlin, Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago, Locarno, Sundance, Tokyo, and many others, earning numerous awards and distinctions.

Much of his work has been devoted to portraying the lives of ordinary people, children, young adults, family relationships, and the social realities of contemporary Iran.

We Were Almost Happy is his first collection of short stories. In this book, Talebi ventures beyond the medium of cinema for the first time, turning to his own personal experiences and long-unspoken memories—stories that remained hidden for years behind silence, social conventions, and cultural constraints.