Director: Jafar Panahi

Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Afssaneh Najmabadi, Maryam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehri, Delmaz Najafi

Dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s latest is his most pointedly and emphatically political as well as funniest film to date. It begins with a man (Azizi), his pregnant wife (Najmabadi) and his little girl (Najafi) going home in their car at night. They hit and kill a dog. ‘God has put it in our path for a reason’ the man reassures his distraught little daughter (Najafi). Then, Vahid (Mobasseri), a car mechanic, is shocked when a customer enters his garage, the footsteps reminding him of those of ‘Pegleg’ the man who tortured him when he was blindfolded and beaten in prison under the oppressive regime. The next day Vahid sets upon, ties up and blindfolds the customer and throws him into the back of his van. To assuage any doubts about his tormentor’s identity, Vahid decides to visit fellow ex-prisoners. The first is Shiva (Afshari) a wedding photographer in mid-shoot. The reaction of the betrothed couple Shiva is photographing is surprising, particularly that of the bride (Pakbaten) who it emerges is also nursing a trauma. Later, an angry, unhinged labourer (Elyasmehr) joins them, also bent on revenge but worryingly unconcerned whether they have the right man or not. Despite the harrowing subject matter the script manages a droll Beckettian absurdism as the van full of disparate passengers bicker about what exactly they should do, culminating in a darkly comic visit to the hospital. With its road movie structure and multi-character scenes, this is Panahi’s most traditionally cinematic picture to date, as well as a morality tale that questions notions of revenge. So playful is the execution, audiences are likely to be blindsided by the devastating conclusion.

David Willoughby

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