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Spanish media praise Iran’s ‘At the End of the Night’ after Valencia festival triumph
Local outlets described the series as “quietly powerful” and “psychologically rich,” days after it clinched jury awards for Best Actor and Best Actress, ILNA reported.
Directed by Ida Panahandeh and produced by Filmnet, the Tehran-set drama stars Parsa Pirouzfar and Hoda Zeinolabedin as a middle-class couple whose marriage unravels under emotional strain.
Critics singled out the show’s subdued storytelling and visual restraint, which they say allow it to speak “without noise, yet be heard.”
Valencia Plaza highlighted the “deep, internal performances” by the two leads, calling them a window into “repressed emotions and human fragility.” The series was praised for presenting a universally relatable portrait of emotional decay with no need for embellishment.
Europa Press placed the drama among the most resonant entries at this year’s event. It described the show as a “precise and layered” exploration of contemporary societal tensions — from economic anxiety to the erosion of connection — all distilled into one intimate domestic setting.
The Institut Valencià de Cultura, which runs the festival, said the 2025 edition centered on how younger creators interpret a shifting world. The Iranian entry, it said, offered a “real and global” view on human struggle through an unflinching lens.
The Valencia win marks the second international accolade for ‘At the End of the Night,’ which also earned Panahandeh a Best Directing prize earlier this year at France’s Series Mania.
Spanish commentators praised the work as “committed” and “honest,” noting how it bypasses common tropes to depict Iran’s social fabric in subtle, human terms. The drama asks, as one reviewer put it, “how we might recover empathy and dialogue in a fractured world.”