Directed by Ali Soozandeh
Germany/Austria | 2017 | Animation, Fiction | 96 min | Farsi w/English subtitles
Film Source: Kino Lorber
Sponsor: Bobbie Lanahan
In this gorgeously animated drama, the lives of several strong-willed women and a young musician intersect. Their stories reveal how sex, drugs and corruption coexist side by side with strict religious law. In the bustling metropolis of Tehran, avoiding prohibitions has become an everyday sport and breaking taboos can be a means of personal emancipation. Nevertheless, women invariably end up on the bottom rung of the social order. A young woman needs an operation to “restore” her virginity. A judge in the Islamic Revolutionary Court exhorts favors from a prostitute in exchange for a favorable ruling. The wife of an imprisoned drug addict is denied the divorce she needs in order to live independently. A naturalistic live-action style would have rendered this film simplistic and possibly crude, but the wise choice of rotoscope animation elevates the meaning and power of the film to another, more universal level. ~ OY