Her 2009 film (Tehran Without Permission), an 83-minute documentary, shows life in
Iran's crowded capital city of
Tehran, during a time when the regime faced international sanctions over its nuclear ambitions and experiencing civil unrest. It was shot entirely with a
Nokia camera phone because of the government’s restrictions over shooting films. The documentary shows various aspects of city life including following women at the
hairdresser talking of the latest
fads, young men speaking of
drugs,
prostitution and other societal problems, and the Iranian
rapper “
Hichkas”. The dialogue is in
Persian with
English and
Arabic subtitles. In December 2009,
Tehran Without Permission was shown at the
Dubai International Film Festival. In February 2023, Farsi's first animated feature,
The Siren (), premiered as the opening film of the
73rd Berlin International Film Festival's Panorama section. The film, following a boy in the port of
Abadan in 1980 during the outbreak of the
Iran-Iraq war, won Best Animated Film at the 16th
Asia Pacific Screen Awards in the Gold Coast, Australia, in November 2023. In March 2024, she was a member of the Fiction Competition Jury at the 22d
International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights. Her 2025 film
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk was accepted into the Cannes ACID section. The film documents life in Gaza during the
Israeli military campaign with Farsi being motivated to show it through the eyes of a Gaza resident after seeing different depictions of the same attacks on different media channels. Filming started in April 2024 and was done remotely, as the film's subject, photojournalist
Fatima Hassouna, sent Farsi self-recorded footage for editing with interviews being done via video calls. On 16 April 2025, the day after it was accepted into ACID, an Israeli airstrike killed Hassona alongside nine of her family members. At the time, Farsi and Hassona were trying to find a way for Hassona to travel to Cannes and return to Gaza after the festival's conclusion. Beyond directing, Farsi has appeared in the front of the camera in her 2002 film
The Journey of Maryam, and in multiple other positions behind the camera on her own works, most notably the one-woman-film
Homi D. Sethna, Filmmaker. In 2026, Farsi joined 800 other Hollywood professionals signing a statement calling to condemn Iranian government, for the
atrocities it committed during the
2025-2026 Iranian protests, against civilians protesting against repression, poverty, discrimination, and structural injustice. == Personal life ==