Movies you might have missed: Appropriate Behaviour – a bisexual, Persian version of Lena Dunham

This could prove to be a big year for Desiree Akhavan. The Iranian-American auteur is working on a sitcom for Channel 4 called The Bisexual that she will write, direct and star in. Her second film, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, is a touching drama starring Chloe Grace Moretz as a teenager sent to a gay conversion camp in 1993; it has opened to rave reviews in the States and will arrive on these shores at the start of September. Her debut, Appropriate Behaviour (2014), was a more light-hearted affair (in her own words, “50 per cent fart jokes”) but immediately established the filmmaker as a major talent.

Having studied film, Akhavan first made waves with her lesbian-themed comedy web series, The Slope. Appropriate Behaviour feels like an extension of that show as the auteur writes, directs and plays a character rooted in her own experiences living in New York like some kind of bisexual, Persian version of Lena Dunham. At a time when representation feels more important than ever, how refreshing to have an experience depicted on screen that is a far cry from the usual American comedy tropes. Akhavan’s Shirin is dumped at the start of the film and left without a job or a home. She moves in with a friend, gets a job teaching infants the art of filmmaking and attempts to get her life back on track.

Much of the conflict on display in Appropriate Behaviour comes from the dichotomy between how Shirin sees herself and how she is viewed by others. Her family is unaware that she’s bisexual and her most recent girlfriend doesn’t know why she can’t tell them. To make matters worse, Shirin’s brother is on the verge of marrying an Iranian prize catch approved by her parents. Our heroine is left wondering where it all went wrong.

There are shades of Frances Ha and Obvious Child but this is a far messier effort than either, with a lack of direction that seems to reflect its protagonist. It is in her interactions with fellow human beings that Akhavan is at her best, endearingly off-kilter whether she’s dealing with hip urbanites or elderly family members. The director does not appear in The Miseducation of Cameron Post and one senses this might be because the material is simply too serious given her inherent funniness. Neither that film nor this debut is a masterpiece but Akhavan undoubtedly has one in her and hers will be a career worth following.