Film Forum

An animated dramatic feature that juggles multiple stories to explore the sexual double-standard behind the hypocrisy of life in contemporary Iran: a young woman needs an operation to “restore” her virginity; a divorce judge (in the Islamic Revolutionary Court) extorts favors from a prostitute; a pregnant woman is desperate to work for a living so she may live independently; young women (purportedly virgins) are sold to Dubai for large sums of money. Ali Soozandeh paints a complicated portrait of a social order in which women are at the bottom rung of a ladder built on religion, the law, and plain old misogyny.

GERMANY / FRANCE / AUSTRIA • 2016 • 96 MINS. • IN FARSI WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
KINO LORBER

Reviews

“Brisk and Bracing.”
– Ben Kenigsberg, The New York Times

“Fascinating! The morality police and their moles are everywhere, watching, listening. As if Abel Ferrara had turned his lens on the gritty street life of Tehran. The city is a character unto itself, vibrant, mysterious, occasionally ugly… (the film) renders the portrait with style. Tehran comes to life.” 
– Andrew Hereford, Film Journal International

“Skillful, involving storytelling and beautifully executed rotoscoped photography… The rough beauty of the animated images… (have) a fascination of their own. The film wisely doesn’t come across as a two-dimensional polemic. Soozandeh’s story is so engaging and nuanced. The characters are drawn (and acted) so compellingly that we are pulled into the complexities of their stories and personalities.”
– Godfrey Cheshire, rogerebert.com

“Sex, rage, and hypocrisy percolate. Astute, and poetically staged.”
– Diego Semerene, Slant

“An audacious debut.”
– Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter

“Visually striking...arresting animation. Represents a glimpse of Iranian culture which is largely unknown. [A] lively, irreverent animated assault on Iranian morality...fizzes with energy and bad behavior.”
– Wendy Ide, Screen Daily

“A savage look at the paradox that is modern Iran. Ali Soozandeh’s brisk animated feature displays an often absurdist energy and comic wit. Eye-opening, scathing. Think of it as SHORT CUTS meets PERSEPOLIS. It is a vibrant and worthy trip that manages to squeeze a bit of poetry into the bombast.”
– Kurt Halfyard, Screen Anarchy