America So Beautiful

A group of Iranian immigrants try to achieve the American dream in Los Angeles amidst the 1979 Iran hostage crisis. Shohreh Aghdashloo, David Diaan., A young man who only wants to dance finds that isn’t so simple when you’re an Iranian in America in this independent drama. Houshang (Mansour) isn’t much different than a lot of teenagers living in Southern California in 1979; he likes disco, thought Saturday Night Fever was a great movie, and wants to be able to take over the dance floor just like John Travolta. However, Houshang also happens to be an Iranian immigrant who works at a Middle Eastern grocery owned by his uncle (Akbar Moazezi); Houshang’s uncle doesn’t think much of his nephew’s fondness for nightlife, and with the hostage crisis in Iran dominating headlines, it’s not a good time to be of Persian descent, even among the dance club crowd. Sahmi (Houshang Touzie), a friend of the family, tells Houshang that he has connections at one of L.A.’s hottest dance spots and can get him and his friends inside for a price; Houshang agrees, but he soon learns that Sahmi has a shady past and isn’t always good to his word, which leads to both disappointment and danger for Houshang and his pals. America So Beautiful was the first feature directed and co-written by Babak Shokrian, himself a Iranian immigrant who came to the United States in 1971.