'Melbourne'
 Venice Review


The Hollywood Reporter
by Deborah Young


Pretending there’s no dead baby in the next room can be nerve-racking.

Amir and Sara are a young couple on their way to Melbourne to continue their studies. However, just a few hours before the departure of their flight, they are unintentionally involved in a tragic event.

Young Iranian cinema is still staggering under the influence of Asghar Farhadi and his Oscar-winning drama A Separation, as is evident in this well-made first film directed by Nima Javidi.



Casting the same actor, Peyman Moaadi, in the central role of a young husband who is about to move to Australia with his wife when the unexpected strikes, Javidi has the entire film play out inside the couple’s apartment on the day of their departure.

The theme is failure to assume responsibility, and though the screenplay lacks the social and psychological complexity of Farhadi’s fine film, it thoroughly succeeds in morally condemning the characters.

However, the film is too one-note and the premise too unconvincing to entice more than a few niche pickups offshore. It bowed at the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran this year and opened Venice’s Critics Week, making it a fine international calling card for the director.



Amir (Moaadi) and his lovely wife, Sara (Negar Javaherian), are happily winding up preparations for an extended trip to Melbourne. A census taker who knocks on the door offers a graceful way to get some exposition out of the way: They announce they'll be gone for three or four years on a study trip, though there are many indications that they plan to leave the country permanently. The first 20 minutes of screen time describe, in tedious detail, how they pack suitcases, call relatives and deal with the movers while phones ring incessantly and Amir excitedly talks on Skype about his future job prospects. They have to keep the noise down because there's a baby sleeping in the bedroom.