This delightful Iranian comedy-drama, which centres around older people sparking up love and intimacy in later life, hits all the right notes from fun-loving to poignant.
We’re introduced to matronly widow Mahin (Lili Farhadpour) as she hosts an annual lunch for her girlfriends. Over dolma and stuffed dates the septuagenariansingle ladies cackle about handsome taxi drivers and compete over who has the most serious health ailments while a wistful Mahin contemplates the lack of connection in her own daily life.
With her adult children absent from Tehran and her grandchildren accessible only over FaceTime, Mahin spends her days queueing for bread, watering her plants and falling asleep in the wee hours while watching romance shows on TV.
It’s on one such ordinary day that Mahin has a chance encounter with Faramarz (Esmaeel Mehrabi), an elderly cabbie whose existence seems similarly lonely. The couple strike up a surprisingly forthright rapport that transforms into an unexpectedly meaningful revival of their youthful joie de vivre.
It’s a simple tale and an absolute joy. Established Iranian actors Farhadpour and Mehrabi develop an effortless chemistry throughout the long, chatty scenes that are mostly filmed in swooping one-shots in which their characters carry on as if they’re the only people in the world.
These once-progressive liberals are nostalgic for the pre-revolution days of fancy hotels, high-heeled outfits and glamorous evenings spent drinking and dancing. (A terrific early scene in which Mahin intervenes in the arrest of some young women accused of “improper dress” is gripping.) Mahin and Faramarz bond as they lament the power of the current regime’s Morality Police and reminisce about making bootleg wine after prohibition had come into effect.
The script, written by co-directors Moghadam and Saneeha (who collaborated on 2020′s Ballad of a White Cow), is rather explanatory, telling rather than showing character details in a manner that more experienced film-makers might handle differently.
