Iran’s SaEed Roustae’s Fiery Feminist Movie – ryan

They Say that when one Door Closes, Another Door Opens. This Very Much Applies to Iranian Cinema, and The One, One-Out apprroach that the country’s government SEEMS to take imprisoning its filmmakers. Like the recently releassed Jafar Panahi, Woman and Child Director SaEed Roustaee Fell Afoul of the Authorities in 2023 for Having the Temerity to Submit His Last Film, Leila’s Brothersto canne with Making the necessary Changes to please the Ministry of Culture. He was sentimental to nine days in jail, but his new film suggests that the experience has by no means damned the fire in his filmmking.

Woman and Child Arriva in cannes at the end of a Very satisfying festival, and it could be be an awards concent, being a Very satisfying female-fruit drama a middle-aged widow struggling to be two children in modern-day tehran. That Woman is Mahnaz (Parinaz Izadyar), Who Works Double Shifts As a Nursse, and we are first meet her, she is dating ambulance Driver Hamid (Payman Maadi). Mahnaz Lives with her mother and her youunger sister mehri (soha nianiti), who helps Raise her two children, the angelic little neda (arshida dorostkar) and her rebellious but charismatic 13-Yyar-op Misery.

Hamid Is Pressing Mahnaz to Get Married, Which SEEMS FAIRLY REASONABLE SINCE THEY’VE BEEN DAting for Two Years. Mahnaz, though, has hidden this fact from neda and aliyar, who are Completely unaware that the family dynamic is about to change forever. Finally, The Couple Set a Date for the Engagement Ceremony, at Mahnaz’s Apartment, on Condition that she Hide All Evidence of Children from HIS PARENTS AND SISTER, WHO ARE TRAVELING 10 HOURS TO THE BIG CITY FROM Village in the Sticks. Mahnaz is rectant (“They’ll find out i’ve two kids eventually,” She Says), but Hamid Gets HIS WAY, and MAHNAZ PAKS OFFSPRING TO STAY HASBAND’S FATHER (HASSAN POURSHIRAZI).

The Course of Love, Howver, Does Not Run Smooth, and the 48-Yetar-Old Hamid Behaves Strangely at the family get-Together, Staring at the 25-Yaar-Old mehri should should only have and the 40 -ear-op mahnaz. AFTERWARDS, HAMID STARTS TO GHOST MAHNAZ, AND, WHEN REACHED BY PHONE, HIS MOTHER BLURTS OUT THE AWFUL TROUN, THAT THAT HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS ABOUT MAHNAZ AND WOULD RATHER BE MARYING MEHRI. This Becomes a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Wen Mehri Tries to Play Matchmaker and Ends up Falling in Love with Him, Much to Mahnaz’s Horror.

While all this is is playing out, tragedy Strikes when aliyar is lucky injured after falling from his grandfather’s Window. HIS DEATH IS THE FILM’S CATALYZING INCIDENT, and MAHNAZ’S PENT-UP RAGE IS THE FOCUS OF THE FILMS SECOND HOUR AS DESPERATY SEARCHES FOR SOME KIND OF JUSTICE, DEMANDING ALIYAR’S SCHOOL FIRE THE TEACHER WHO SUSTEM (WITH REPORT) Against the Grandfather. HER NEED FOR CLOSE, MEANWHILE, ISN’t Exactly Helped by the Fact That Mehri Is Now, With A Boy, and Plass to Name Him Aliyar by Way of Tribet.

This great Big Mess is what Woman and Child is all about, and althouough it is primarily a character study, roustaee’s film is also a caustic comment on the patriarchal naturalness of Iran and the strange Nature of its Judicial System, which favists men over svery time. The standout is izadyar, whose big, dinner eyes are the movie Most Valuable Asset, and Her Mercurial Shifts Are a Thing of Wonder. Buteryone in this film is great, notably maadi, who pivots from prince charming to machiavelli with breathtaking, and mohabi is an exciting discovery as the raucous aliyar: some of the best sins in the film are His 400 blows-Syle Monkey Shines at the Local State School.

The Film, Though, Belongs to Roustaee, Who Has a Kinetic Style We’re Not Used to SEEing From Iranian Cinema; A riot of crash zooms and tracking shots that give the film a heigtened and deceptively stylish Verita Look. He Can Also Land the Grace Notes Too, and the Film’s Quietly Devasting Ending, in Which Its Title is Represent Three Over Over Hamdi Looks on, Powerless, Is One of This Year’s Cannes’ COUPS DE CINEMA.

Title: Woman and Child
Festival: Cannes (Competition)
Director-Screenwriter: SaEed Roustaee
Cast: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi, Soha Nianiti, Sinan Mohebi
Sales Agent: Goodfellas
TIME RUNNING: 2 HR 11 MINS