FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (February 2026) – Ahead of its world premiere at the prestigious Cinequest in San Jose, California, award-winning, Toronto-based Iranian Canadian director, Marjan Hashemi’s debut feature film After Love has been picked up for international distribution by Madakto Pictures.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Madkato Pictures and premiering After Love at the Cinequest festival – both known for championing bold stories,” says filmmaker, Marjan Hashemi who recently returned to Canada from Iran. “After Love portrays what it means to grapple with the drive to assert our own identity while at the same time being called back to a home we know, even if it is not such a nice place to live anymore.”

After Love takes a sharp, deeply humane look at what happens when a long relationship suddenly slips off its well-worn script. Dissatisfied Mehri, played by award-winning Persian-Canadian actress Aida Keykhaii, and her husband Kamal, played to simmering perfection by Keykhaii’s real-life husband, Mohamad Yaghoubi, have spent decades together building a life defined by loyalty, habit, and mutual care. Lately, the rhythms that once sustained them feel offbeat, and affection becomes tangled with frustration in unexpected ways.

The cast is rounded out by charming new-comer, Markus McNamara playing the couple’s bold, curious, and gloriously unfiltered grandson, Nathan, and Parmida Vand as their estranged daughter Tina. After Love screens on March 15 and 17 at Cinequest ’26.

After Love is funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, along with the WIDC Feature Film Award which includes a comprehensive package of in kind sponsorships from screen industry companies across Canada. The dark comedy drama is written and directed by Marjan Hashemi; produced by Hashemi and Jordan Barker (The Last Mark) under the Toronto-based Gearshift Films banner; executive produced by Borga Dorter (Gearshift Films), Sadegh Khoshhal, and WIDC’s Carol Whiteman who is also executive producer on fifteen award-winning WIDC Feature Film Award films and known for her role as co-creator and producer of Canada’s internationally respected Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC). Madakto Pictures was established in 2020 by Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Towrivarian with the aim of expanding and supporting independent cinema.

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AFTER LOVE BACKGROUNDER:

AFTER LOVE || dark comedy / drama feature film
Mahri and Kamal, Iranian immigrants in their 60’s are grappling with the frustrations of aging, the malaise of a decades-long marriage, and the longing for family and home. Following his pathetic attempt on Marhi’s life, Kamal follows Mehri on a journey that forces them both to face shocking revelations about themselves, their daughter and their idiosyncratic young grandson. Balancing uncomfortable laughs with genuine warmth, After Love is a lively, surprising meditation on connection, reinvention, and the stubborn joy of staying curious about the people we think we already know. Intimate and full of life, it’s a film about love and home, not as a finished story, but as a story that keeps changing, no matter how long you’ve been telling it.

AIDA KAIKHAII || Mehri
Aida Kaikhaii is a Canadian-Iranian actor, director producer and theatre instructor with over a decade of experience in the industry. She holds an MA in Play Directing and a BA in Acting from the University of Tehran. She is the co-founder of Nowadays Theatre, the 2018-19 Company in Residency at Canadian Stage (Toronto), where she made her Canadian acting debut in ‘The Only Possible Way’. Her recent film and TV credits include Harbour House, What We Do In the Shadows, Coroner (CBC) and the leading role of Mehri in Marjan Hashemi’s debut feature film, After Love.

MOHAMMAD YAGHOUBI || Kamal
Born and raised in Iran, Mohammad Yaghoubi is an award-winning playwright, director, and screenwriter. He moved to Canada in 2015 and co-founded the Nowadays Theatre company in 2016 with his wife, actor-director, Aida Kaikhaii. Mohammad’s plays have been translated into seven languages and produced in Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Kurdistan, Russia, Sweden, The Czech Republic, Turkey, and the USA. Under Yaghoubi’s direction, his latest play, ‘Earworm’, was presented bilingually (in Farsi and English) at Crow’s Theatre, Toronto, February 2024. Playing the role of Kamal in After Love, opposite his real-life wife, Aida was an act of love.

MARCUS MCNAMARA | Nathan
Markus McNamara is a Toronto, Canada-based actor known for his roles in Little Big Shot (2025), Overcompensating (2025), and Murdoch Mysteries (2008). Marcus shines in his sunny characterization of the break-out supporting role of Nathan in After Love (2026).

PARMIDA VAND || Tina
Parmida Vand (she/they) is an Iranian-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist working across film, theatre, and music. Born on Qeshm Island and raised in Toronto, she brings a rich cultural lens to her work as an actor, musician (under the moniker Päter), writer, and director. Vand’s screen credits include The Persian Version (Sundance Audience Award), Run The Burbs (CBC), and Orphan Black: Echoes (AMC).

MARJAN HASHEMI || writer, director, producer
Marjan Heshami is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian writer/director who infuses the themes of freedom, love, human bonds, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and social justice in her work. In addition to writing, directing, and producing, Marjan holds degrees in English Literature and Psychology, has studied acting and filmmaking at Sheridan and has led screenwriting and directing workshops in Tehran and Toronto. Her London, UK-shot short film Ostracized (2023) toured festivals internationally and her 2SLGBTQ+ coming-of-age short drama Origami, won the best international short film award at the 2021 Jakarta Independent Film Festival.

JORDAN BARKER || producer
Jordan Barker is an award-winning producer, director, and co-founder of Toronto, Canada-based Gearshift Films. In 2024, Jordan produced Chopping Boy, starring Josh Close (Killers of The Flower Moon, Monica) directed by Dave Lafontaine and Adam Belanger. Gearshift also produced The White Fortress, a Bosnian-Canadian co-production that was shortlisted for Best Foreign Film at the 2022 Academy Awards. Jordan executive produced the 2023 Sundance Midnight opening film Birth/Rebirth directed by Laura Moss, along with the Gearshift co-created Queen of Oz, a half-hour comedy series for BBC/ABC, starring Catherine Tate (The Office). Other credits include Sony Pictures’ The Marsh starring Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, Duress starring Martin Donovan and Ariel Winter (Modern Family).

BORGA DORTER || executive producer
Award-winning producer Borga Dorter launched Gearshift Films in 2010. Under the Gearshift banner he has produced ten films, including The Last Mark starring Shawn Doyle, selected for the TIFF Industry Selects program in 2021, and The White Fortress, which premiered at the 2021 Berlin International Film Festival and was picked as Bosnia’s official entry for the foreign language Oscar for 2021. He produced the Amazon/Freevee TV series Beyond Black Beauty, a Canada/Belgium co-production, for which he won a Canadian Screen Award. A dual Canada/EU citizen, Borga has produced and supervised productions in Canada and abroad, including Iceland, Malta, Ireland, UK, Belgium, France and Taiwan.

 SADEGH KHOSHHAIRODPSHTY || executive producer
Bio not available at press time.

CAROL WHITEMAN || executive producer
Since 1996, multi-award-winning Carol Whiteman has worked tirelessly to advance the careers, fiction feature films, network television and web series of a generation of women and non-binary screenwriters and directors across Canada and internationally. Through WIDC, she has produced over 150 short films and is executive producer on fifteen award-winning feature films including Never Steady, Never Still (2017); Red Snow 2019); Rustic Oracle (2019); Queen of the Morning Calm (2019); With Love and A Major Organ (2023); and Monica’s News (2025).

ABOUT WIDC
Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) was launched thirty years ago as an initial collaboration among ACTRA, the Banff Centre, and Women In Film and Television Vancouver. Over 390 director alumni working across Canada and around the globe, have developed 1000’s of hours of narrative screen content. WIDC is presented with major support from Telefilm Canada, and with the participation and support of ACTRA National, UBCP/ACTRA, Actra Fraternal Benefit Society, Creative BC, and the Independent Production Fund.

WIDC Feature Film Award is supported by Panavision Canada, Keslow Camera Film and Digital, RAW Camera, Sunbelt Rentals Film & TV, MELS Studios, North Shore Studios, Martini Studios, Company 3, Distillery VFX, Rocket Science VFX, Elemental Post Production, Portable Electric, The Research House Clearances Inc, Descriptive Video Works, Front Row Insurance, National Captioning Canada, Line-21 Media Services Inc., EP Canada, Signal Systems and Champ & Pepper. WIDC also appreciates community collaborations with the Director’s Guild of Canada, GEMFest Vancouver, Female Eye Film Festival, St John’s International Women’s Film Festival, Reelworld Screen Institute and Film Festival, BANFF, TIFF, VIFF, Crazy 8’s, Whistler Film Festival, and PR support from GAT PR.