Weekend with Tina Gharavi: ‘Films give you closure, which we hope for in life’
The writer, director and academic on cooking for friends in Newcastle, her love of Wes Anderson movies and her latest work Shadows of Beirut
Tina Gharavi is an Iranian-born British writer, director and academic. Her Bafta-nominated debut feature I Am Nasrine (2012) followed two young Iranians whose new lives in the UK are affected by the fallout of 9/11. Gharavi has gone on to direct more than a dozen films and TV series, including Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra.
Her latest film, Shadows of Beirut — about a young woman who returns to Lebanon to see her estranged dying father — was released in September 2026. She’s currently working on Forough: Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season, a biopic about the Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad, executive produced by Wes Anderson.
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Gharavi is also a reader in screenwriting and film at Newcastle University.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How do you ease into the weekend?
Probably answering a million emails and trying to get as many emails cleared out the deck, which is sad.
One of my favourite ways to blow off steam on a Friday night is hanging out with good people, talking about your lives, stresses and probably a lot of discussion about property. We’re always dreaming about buying property somewhere.
Favourite place in Newcastle?
The coastline is stunning.
Beamish is also one of my favourite spots. It’s an open-air museum where I filmed my last movie Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day. The 1900s town has incredible things like a dentist’s office from 1920, a 1950s cinema and there’s even a sweet shop.
What does your typical Saturday look like?
I live very close to the covered market in Newcastle so I go there to get my groceries and all the little things for the week.
And then?
I love going to the cinema. Watching a film is always such a magical thing to do. I really want to see Rose with Sandra Hüller.
Favourite cinema?
Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. It’s got a wonderful community around it. Its current director, Nic Greenan, is a powerhouse northern woman who’s really transforming it into a hub for the community so lots of young people in the north-east can learn about how to make movies and how to tell their stories which is really important.
Favourite film?
I love Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. If I’m ever depressed or having a difficult time and I need something to wipe my mind, I watch it. I also love Wes’ film Bottle Rocket — I’m not just saying that because I’m working with him, but they’re just great films that are about a time and a place. They’re universes that you can slip into and forget any troubles you have.
That’s what cinema is great for — it’s a way to just leave your everyday and ordinary and forget your problems, meet someone else’s problems, and get a resolution. Films give you closure, which we hope for in life.
How do you spend your Sundays?
Invite people around and cook for them.
Do you like cooking?
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I love cooking for people. My table usually has an odd assortment of people around it who like to eat. I love to cook Persian food, with rice and something like a stew of some kind. Equally, it could be a British roast with Yorkshire puddings.
What do you hope people will feel after watching Shadows of Beirut?
I’ve seen people leave the cinema in tears after watching the film because they relate to the separation from their homeland. Something happens when we are in exile. Our sense of what home is and our relationship to it is something we’re negotiating forever. So if the film helps anyone who’s going through that kind of trauma and it gives them some sort of catharsis, I would be happy.
But the film will be different things for different people. There’s a love story in there. There are different elements. I just hope it lands with people and that they enjoy the popcorn.
