Incannerax
What a waste of my time!!!
Infamousta
brilliant actors, brilliant editing
Sexyloutak
Absolutely the worst movie.
Janae Milner
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
depuch
First off....wow, all the Iranian expats posting reviews here seem to have an agenda and it seems like a number of reviewers are hating on this movie without having actually watched it (describing scenes that don't exist in the movie!) I thought this was a fascinating look at what goes on behind closed doors in Iran; not just the sex, drugs and rock and roll of the young people's underground club scene, but also the wealthy parents who drink wine and love to sing and dance. I think the only flaw is that the filmmaker is trying to tell too many stories of the affects of this brutal religious/political repression. There are a number of subplots and minor characters that aren't well developed, but the main story of the two young women who are in love and desperate for freedom is haunting and heartbreaking.
vivaldi-bgd
So what if the story does not reflect the Iranian society, culture and LGBT community? This is a beautiful coming-of-age story about love between two girls developing in a strongly oppressed society. Even if it is not Iranian, which is hard for me to believe, unfortunately there are many other places on Earth where same-sex love is strongly disapproved of and even criminalized.This multi-faceted film tells several stories and all but the love story are very disturbing - religious fanaticism, denied human rights, strong patriarchal society, drug addiction, hypocrisy, personal psychological issues. Amid the turbulent background, there is a pure and innocent relationship between the two girls, aged 16-ish. The two leading actresses played excellent roles, portraying masterfully both joy and agony. The agony which they are going through is almost physically hurting. I admired attention to detail in depicting this young love. The only thing that lacked a stronger connection between the two girls is the marriage ceremony and party afterward. As a turning point of their lives, one would expect their belonging to each other to be expressed more clearly especially through eye contact.Contemporary lesbian cinematography contains true masterpieces but also epic fails. This film is one of the bright examples of a well-written, directed and produced pieces of art. In spite of the ending, we are indeed left with hope that things can change for same-sex love in this dark world.
evgenia
Movie is erratic, obscure and basically resemble a long video clip. Its plot hard to follow and characters are weekly developed, most plot twists are logically disconnected. So why is this debut feature movie got Sundance audience award, was reviewed by most prominent American newspapers and was shown in numerous American theaters? Difficulties of lesbian love in Iran is widely compelling, so it's pretty easy to speculate on the subject and arouse more public outrage against Islamic republic regime on the whole, which is exactly the present agenda. That's the only plausible explanation Even if the director as she stated made a movie about her youth and experience in Iran, it turned out to be a spot on for western anti-Iranian propaganda. This is the only reason the movie being noticed, awarded, discussed and promoted. So it's obvious that the subject of forbidden lesbian love is alluring and induces great empathy, and is truly sad. This movie, however, does not really focus on that, putting a side the fact, that girls are so far from real lesbians and are more of a man's dream of lesbians. Movie is exceptionally superficial and mostly focuses on the physical aspect of the girls relationship, bed scenes are shot in the music clip manner. Most part of the film girls go from one party to another and once even have to run away from the moral police (duh). Their 'fight' for human rights is represented, I assume, by their secretly doubling movie 'Milk' with two allegedly gay guys. Only the process of doubling an intercourse scene of Harvy Milk and his lover is shown though. The most meaningful dialog that took place among the characters on the human rights subject is one where they jokingly argue whether having sex with whoever you want is a an indivisible human right or not. The director, moreover, tried to make out of this scattered music clip a melodramatic thriller on top of all. Thus the older brother of Atefeh, Mehran, who is an ex heroin addict, and supposedly a talented pianist has been recently released from a rehab and became a righteous Muslim overnight. He calls moral police on his friend's grandiose party and apparently completely renounces his old life style. His new obsession is Shirin, who is from an impoverished family of university professors, supposedly killed for their anti-government actions. Mehran, who often sits in front of his computer turned out is spying on Shirin by installing hidden cameras all over the house. He is an extremely bad copy of William Baldwin's character in 'Silver'. He looks pathetic and comic trying to depict an obsessed psychopath. Finally he blackmails Shirin and makes her marry him, since he recorded her doubling 'milk' and can put her to jail. The funny thing is that he is more than Shirin could ever dream about - Her uncle has been pushing her to get married for quite a while and another beau was much worse of a deal anyway. Film ends by Shrirn kissing her husband goodbye, who all of a sudden became an ambitious businessman and is going to work in his Mercedes. Atefeh bribes a travel agent with her daddy's money and gets a visa and a ticket to Dubai, where she thinks 'everything is possible'. The whole film is so absurd and out of place, and characters are so weakly developed, that its dramatic part is just sort of comic in a bad way. Apart from all its nonsense script, awful editing, unconvincing performance, the movie does not even appeal to an average Tehranian because It is entirely detached from reality.
fresh-airnov
lets start by the point which makes this movie way different from other movies with regards to Iran 1.no one was poor or uncultured or no camel on the street so that is good! 2.people tend to say stuff in other movies but taboos don't let that happen , well we heard it all in this film 3.no one ever talked about this concept (homosexuality)in any iranian movie before (i know this movie was way more that just homosexuality it covered it all!) 4. i happen to know a family quit similar in Iran , and trust me the brother of the family is an idiot just like Mehran he is a basiji while the sister is fooling around 5.finally we see many iranian moves which are good in scenario and concept but directing is weak somehow loose , like normal stuff , you can see the boom or unnatural scene , i didn not find any in this film , the genre was nice and clear not a random lets make a movie thing and thanks to ms.keshavarz we find many good new and old actors/actresses whom we did not know so far , the fact that the director was a female it self made me really glad too finally great job every one loved it at the end i want to thank the choice of music , Zan by a girl rapper . the name of the movie which is indeed best possible choice , for me though it was the circumstance for the father of the family whi changed as well as him! and the girls , well all iranian teens are having same problem