Heiran

Running time: 88 mins

Can love survive politics?

Flaunting convention, headstrong high school student Mahi follows her betrothed, an illegal Afghan aid worker named Heiran, to Tehran. Leaving her disapproving family behind, Mahi is engulfed by a new, harsher reality in the city. Mahi has to grow up fast and finds that her relationship with Heiran requires endless effort.

Unlike Western tales of young love, Heiran takes place in an unfamiliar world of strange beauty, where love can lead to danger and doom even more easily than it brings happiness. Marking the startling and provocative debut of female director Shalizeh Arefpour, Heiran is a thoughtful, timely and daring foray into life in contemporary Iran.

? Casey Burchby