Director: Mohammad Rasoulof

Stars: Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Mahsa Rostami, Setareh Maleki

Filmed in secret in Iran, shortly before the director was forced to flee, Rasoulof’s sprawling drama is a disturbing psychological depiction of life under a theocratic regime. Family man Iman (Zareh) has been appointed investigator to the Islamic Revolutionary court. This means a bigger apartment and a good wage, but Iman will be expected to act beyond reproach. He instructs his two spirited teenage daughters, Rezvan (Rostami) and Sana (Maleki), that they must also behave appropriately and delete their social media accounts. His pious wife Najmeh (Golestani), another true believer in the regime, backs him up. Their eldest Rezvan has just started college where protests are becoming commonplace and increasingly fraught following the death of Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for refusing to wear a hijab (a real incident woven into the fabric of the story). Iman starts to feel the strain after his superior asks him to sign a death warrant. He is also issued a gun, but when it disappears, recriminations start and family bonds are tested. The film is at its best when it shows the insidious effects of life under a totalitarian regime on Iman and his wife. He is plagued by nightmares, while Najmeh’s insistence on the regime’s good intentions is contradicted by the incriminating videos of police beatings her daughters watch on their phones. The sense of unease is compounded by jerky handheld camerawork, and in the claustrophobic, apartment-bound scenes, where viewers are left to ponder how much of the threat is real or merely just stems from the paranoia that results from living in a totalitarian state. Occasionally the narrative is a little baggy over the almost three-hour running time, and the ending may be a little too on the nose for some, but this is an impressively staged and timely psychological thriller.

David Willoughby

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