Saw this at the Imagine film festival 2023 in Amsterdam. The main story is built around a convoluted web of lies, going far beyond white lies to protect someone's feelings. It is bound to explode in everyone's face. The sheer number of participants in the lie alone make the plot doomed for failure. Nevertheless, the positive aspect of the story is that it emphasizes the standard way women are treated in Iran as subject to their husbands, rather than autonomous beings in their own right. It is clear to me that the filmmakers wanted to precisely demonstrate that, using this story as a vehicle. And in that point of view, this movie has a purpose and a message.
I regret the underwritten story of the student confessing to teacher Sara that she was pregnant. It was a promising sub-plot, while she at the same time forbade Sara to inform the parents. Like the main plot, a white lie impossible to maintain for good. Sara promised to keep the secret, under the condition that the student would inform her family while underway for an abortion.
The story about the pregnant student disappears under the radar until very much later in the running time. Near the finale we learn about a heated argument under a bridge, leaving the student killed. We see Sara telling the student's mother that she knew about it (and had an idea who the father of the unborn child was), all this via the doorbell's intercom without really meeting the student's mother.
Halfway the running time, I was assuming that the earlier student's confession was intended as a cliff hanger, to be picked up and integrated in the story to arrive at an uplifting end of the movie. But alas, that did not happen, and the story faltered. Given the modest length of 83 minutes, this sub-plot could have been exploited much better, allowing us to leave the theater in a better mood than the current ending did, leaving everyone involved as a looser.
I scored only 3/5 for the audience award when leaving the venue for two reasons. Firstly, letting falter a promising sub-story with the student that could have provided a much better finale, both based on white lies, both defeating their purpose. And secondly, the too convoluted web of lies in the main story, unrealistic to uphold, by letting all family members conspire against Hamed.
I regret the underwritten story of the student confessing to teacher Sara that she was pregnant. It was a promising sub-plot, while she at the same time forbade Sara to inform the parents. Like the main plot, a white lie impossible to maintain for good. Sara promised to keep the secret, under the condition that the student would inform her family while underway for an abortion.
The story about the pregnant student disappears under the radar until very much later in the running time. Near the finale we learn about a heated argument under a bridge, leaving the student killed. We see Sara telling the student's mother that she knew about it (and had an idea who the father of the unborn child was), all this via the doorbell's intercom without really meeting the student's mother.
Halfway the running time, I was assuming that the earlier student's confession was intended as a cliff hanger, to be picked up and integrated in the story to arrive at an uplifting end of the movie. But alas, that did not happen, and the story faltered. Given the modest length of 83 minutes, this sub-plot could have been exploited much better, allowing us to leave the theater in a better mood than the current ending did, leaving everyone involved as a looser.
I scored only 3/5 for the audience award when leaving the venue for two reasons. Firstly, letting falter a promising sub-story with the student that could have provided a much better finale, both based on white lies, both defeating their purpose. And secondly, the too convoluted web of lies in the main story, unrealistic to uphold, by letting all family members conspire against Hamed.