Nahid

Watched this film yesterday that won Un Certain Regard (Avenir Prize) at Cannes Film Fest. 2015 (tied with Indian entry 'Masaan').

Among the family dysfunctional Iranian films, two films ... Asghar Farhadi's Oscar-winning 'A Separation' (2011) and Shlomi Elkabetz's Golden Globe winner 'Gett: The Trial Of Viviane Amsalem' (2014) .... had taken the film world by storm for their in-depth portrayal of conservative and highly patriarchal Iranian society.

Following closely on the heels comes yet another Iranian film that can truly compete with these two preceding films in terms of the script and the presentation ... and that film is 'NAHID' directed by Ida Panahandeh.

The film makes a poignant commentary on Iran's ancient but still-on-the-books laws regarding Iranian marriages. In case of divorce, the law gives the child's custody exclusively to the father unless he agrees otherwise. In the instant case, the husband agrees to let his divorced wife have custody of their son so long as she doesn't remarry.

Another ancient law comes into play, involving a Sharia law particular to Iran. It allows for a religiously sanctioned temporary marriage, a dispensation that can cover anything from a long-term affair to polygamy to one-month temporary marriage without changing one's official marital status.

Against this backdrop and in a conservative and highly patriarchal society, the film tells a very complicated story of a debt-ridden single divorced mother engaged in the seemingly impossible task of trying to hold onto the custody of her only son while contemplating remarrying her newly found love at the same time.

The highlights of the film are superb directorial debut by Ida Panahandeh and amazing acting by Sareh Bayat in the lead role of 'Nahid'.

Ida Panahandeh has handled this complicated story with great finesse and richly deserves the award as the best debutante director. And the less said the better about the acting potential of Sareh Bayat. Many might have seen her as the pregnant maidservant in Asghar Farhadi's 'A Separation' around whom the film revolves. In this film, she has come up with yet another brilliant performance carrying the entire film on her shoulders. She has tremendous acting potential which certainly needs to be explored.

The other leading actors Pejman Bazeghi, Navid Mohammadzadeh and Milad HosseinPour (in the kid's role) too have done justice to their respective roles.

Another worth mentioning aspect of the film is its brilliant cinematography by Morteza Gheidi. He does a fantastic job of capturing the moods in the bleak wintry backwater, glittering lights reflected in the river water, bustling markets and musty cafes.

Overall, it's a brilliant film which must be watched.

My rating: 8 out of 10.

It's not just Farhadi Iranian films is best at portraying protagonists who are very flawed that even while you are rooting for them it's impossible to blame other characters either. But surely takes a political stand that seem to have pi**ed of a lot in Iran especially because the director is a woman. Very hard to sit through but very much worth it.

It's very rare that films these days having strong depictions on women and their lives.This film is a wonderful exception that has a strong,moving portrayal of a woman's world - her feelings and her struggles that is completely relatable to the modern Iranian society and culture. A contemporary Iranian gem to be treasured.

Let me start by saying that this is not an "easy" movie. One lady in the cinema said at the end that she was "feeling overwhelmed" while watching it. I agree, there is a kind of oppressive atmosphere in this movie. Sometimes it is more tangible, and some other times is less explicit, but it is always there. Nahid is a divorced Iranian woman that has to deal with a tough situation: she is in love with a man, but marrying to him will mean that she loses the custody of her son (this is Iranian law). She doesn't know how to deal with it, and she cannot completely make her mind. She feels oppressed, by an ex-husband that has been neglecting her for many years, by a son that doesn't respect her, by a landlord that doesn't let her stay more time, by a society that looks down at her... and by herself, who sometimes can be her own worst enemy.

The director nicely presents us this slice-of-life, in which the different actors play very well and credibly their respective roles. Maybe the roles of the two men are a little bit clichéd, but overall the acting is good. Everything transitions smoothly, and the photography and music are smartly crafted to nicely present the different scenes that take place in this observed domestic drama.

Nahid is a nice window into the life of a woman in the Iranian society, but it is also a sensitive reflection about the dilemmas and crises that we have to face during our life, independently of our culture.