Not available for screening anymore
Leila and Kaveh are a mysterious pair from Tehran, traveling the mountainous countryside in their Lexus coupe to push big bags of money on the locals. This turns out to be not so easy, but fascinating to watch, as the cagey couple invent increasingly brazen stratagems to place cash in the hands of the wary, proud or indifferent. Will they push things too far? Are they losing sight of their mission? What exactly is their mission? Led by riveting performances from Taraneh Alidoosti and writer-director Mani Haghighi, this bold comedy-drama unfurls with unexpected force amid subtle themes of power, privilege and corruption.
Awards
- Special Mention (Best Actress) - Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
- Coup de cœur INALCO - Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
- NETPAC Award, Berlinale Forum
Credits
- Cast
- Taraneh Alidoosti
- Mani Haghighi
- Saeed Changizian
- Esmail Khalaj
- Saber Abar
- Mohammad Aghebati
- Screenplay
- Mani Haghighi
- Amir-Reza Koohestani
- Cinematography
- Houman Behmanesh
- Editing
- Hayedeh Safiyari
- Music
- Feuermusik (Jeremy Strachan and David Weinkauf)
- Production
- IRANIAN INDEPENDENTS
Press
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the punchy script by Haghighi and Amir-Reza Koohestani has devilish twists that can’t be predicted.
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the film deliberately leaves its setting anonymous and the nearby border unnamed: the better to describe a wholly interior hell.
Mani Haghighi
Iran
Mani Haghighi was born in 1969 in Tehran. He is an Iranian filmmaker, screen writer and actor. His first feature, ABADAN (2004), was banned by Iranian officials but bootleg copies of the film helped initiate a new wave of Iranian underground film. His second feature, MEN AT WORK (2006), premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and won several international prizes, including the Best Screenplay Prize at the Asian Film Awards and the Founders’ Prize at Michael Moore’s Traverse City FF. CANAAN (2008), an adaptation of an Alice Munro short story, won the Audience Prize for Best Film at Fajr IFF. Haghighi co-wrote, directed, produced and acted in his fourth feature, MODEST RECEPTION (2012), which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the NETPAC Prize, and went on to sweep eight more international prizes, including the Free Spirit Award at the Warsaw Film Festival. A DRAGON ARRIVES! was selected in Competition at the Berlinale in 2016.
Selected Filmography
