The international contributions to Maryam Keshavarz' drama "Circumstance" -- a love triangle set amid the political tensions of modern Iran -- include location shooting in Lebanon, and a cast that hails from Paris, Toronto, Tehran and New York City.

Oh, and Salt Lake City.

Sina Amedson is an actor and stand-up comedian who grew up in Holladay and Salt Lake City - and his family still lives in Sandy.

Amedson plays a minor role as Hossein, an Americanized Iranian student who meets the lead characters -- high school friends Atafeh (Nikohl Boosheri) and Shireen (Sarah Kazemy) -- in Tehran's illegal underground club scene.

Amedson told me after the movie's Sundance Film Festival premiere Saturday that she met Keshavarz when the filmmaker was workshopping "Circumstance" at the Sundance Filmmakers' Lab in Provo Canyon. Amedson has volunteered there before, playing roles "if they need a Middle Eastern or ethnic person," he said.

Keshavarz said in an interview before the festival that she held auditions for the role, but always came back to Amedson. She reconnected with the actor, who moved to Los Angeles in 2008, via Facebook.

Amedson also helped write the movie's one comic scene, when the friends decide, as an act of political protest, to dub Farsi-language versions of "Milk" and "Sex and the City."

- Sean P. Means