Special Jury Prize, Talent Tape Award

Synopsis

Roya is a resourceful young woman who is juggling with loans to pay back a large debt. With her gift of the gab and her determination to fight her way out, she finds herself at the top of a small ponzi scheme that promises to be lucrative, but very soon the mechanism seizes up and a sense of control gives way to anxiety.

With a sense of narrative sequencing akin to his senior, Jafar Panahi (The Circle, Blood and Gold), Mahmoud Ghaffari portrays a protagonist hemmed in by a double straightjacket, one where social and gender inequality are inextricably intertwined.



His character is neither a heroine nor the passive victim of a crushing system but warrior-like yet evanescent.

Arguably, this determination, which draws its energy from despair, can be seen as an obligation incumbent on any filmmaker practising their art in today’s Iran: the obligation to fight up to the point where one’s very absence leaves a void full of meaning. --CG (Festival des 3 Continents)




Another summary

Roya, a young single woman, lives in a shelter. She escapes the watchful eye of her guardians as often as she can in order to pay her way out of a heavy debt.

Energetic and shrewd, she juggles loans and soon finds herself at the heart of a little scheme that could prove to be lucrative.



But social and sexual inequality throws a wrench in the works for this fighter. One can never shake off one’s shackles so easily.

Cast: Hadis Miramini, Elham Kerda, Mehdi Pourmosa, Behrand Alavi