SON-MOTHER (PESAR-MADAR) World Cinema

US Premiere

When Leila, a single working mother of two, is laid off from her factory job, she faces a choice: marry bus driver Kazem, a single father who is ardently pursuing her, or live with her children on the streets. The marriage proposal comes with a catch — due to Iranian custom, it is deemed improper for Leila’s twelve-year-old son Amir to share the house with a young step sister. Leila is convinced to marry Kazem and have her son temporarily boarded at a school for deaf children. At the school, Amir pretends to be deaf and unable to speak, awaiting his mother to retrieve him.

First-time feature director Mahnaz Muhammadi brilliantly navigates this unsentimental critique of Iranian traditions and the impossible choices that they can impose. –Ken Jacobson