“The only thing that we have that we can actually hold onto in the most difficult circumstances is what we actually believe.” So said Mary Darling, the writer and director of the beautiful film, Cast Aside the Clouds. Set in modern-day Tehran, Cast Aside the Clouds is both a forbidden love story and a depiction of the steadfast faith of the Baha’i community amidst ongoing persecution.
Juliet Vedral
The Baha’is, Iran’s largest non-Muslim minority, have been targeted for persecution in the country since 1844 and are often treated as heretics because the Baha’i Faith claims that there have been other “messengers” after Muhammad. Since the United States began bombing Iran on February 28, 2026, the Baha’i community has experienced its most intense oppression since the Islamic Revolution.
“There have been a number of people, including a couple of young men, a couple of young cousins who have recently been experiencing intense persecution, torture, and mock execution,” shared Darling, herself a Baha’i. “Anytime that there seems to be a war or something else is happening in the world, the Baha’is in Iran begin to really get it,” she explained. “They’re often threatened for being spies to Israel, spies of America, because of course the Bahai World Center is in Haifa, Israel.”
According to Human Rights Watch, after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Baha’is were “executed or forcibly disappeared.” The Iranian government restricts Baha’is educational and professional opportunities. Baha’is are often arrested and imprisoned, and their property confiscated, without justification.
It is against this backdrop of persecution that Sasan, a Muslim doctor, and Layla, his former patient who is Baha’i, first meet. Layla, the daughter of a Baha’i professor prohibited from teaching, is working in her father’s bookstore when she is struck in the head by a brick thrown through the window. Sasan treats Layla and gets to know her as she recuperates, observing the way she befriends a fellow patient and his mother. Intrigued, Sasan seeks Layla out, and they begin dating each other, much to Sasan’s uncle’s disapproval.
The film’s title comes from a poem by Táhirih, a Baha’i who was herself executed in the 19th century. The full line reads, “Cast aside the clouds to show them the sun in its full splendor, by removing the veils from the beauty of your face … ” It is a prayer to the Divine to make itself known.
Image from the “Cast Aside the Clouds” movie poster.
Darling chose this title because of “this idea of casting aside the clouds, removing the veils, letting go of anything that’s between us, anything that is a veil between us and our actual reality … that we’re one human family inhabiting one planet. And the sooner we come to understand that, the sooner the problems that we’re creating for ourselves will begin to diminish.”
The film also works to “remove the veils” about Iran’s oppression of the Baha’i community. As their relationship progresses, Sasan becomes aware of the Baha’i faith and its persecution. He becomes a proxy for the audience, removing a veil on both what the Baha’i community believes and what it’s like to be a disfavored religious minority in Iran. When Sasan sees Layla arrested and unjustly imprisoned, the veil of ignorance is torn away. Sasan observes the way Layla and her family rely on their faith to carry them through her torture and imprisonment, choosing to forgive her oppressors. At the end of the film, Sasan asks Layla’s father for help to forgive as well.
Near the end of the film, Mr. Amadi, Layla’s teacher who is imprisoned with her, says, “people are like seeds,” summing up the essence of the film. “We also have that capacity to grow, but we need external forces,” shared Darling. “So if you want to call that external force God, if you want to call that external force prayer, if you want to call that service to others, those things help us to grow. … It’s about nurturing our own capacity as individuals to cast aside our own prejudices, hatred, assumptions, and move into more of an active role as a protagonist in building something new.”
Though hostilities are winding down between the United States and Iran, it is clear that the Islamic Republic and its persecution of the Baha’i community will not end any time soon. As Christians, we are called to be known by our love, even for those outside our “camp.” Lord, help us to know how to help the Baha’i community in Iran.
Cast Aside the Clouds premieres in Chicago on June 18 and will run through June 25. The film will be shown in Washington, D.C. from June 25 through July 1.
