Mainline

Colour, 35 mm
Iran, 2006, 78 min
Section: Horizons

Synopsis

Sara’s fiancé is coming back soon from his study trip in Toronto. He plans to get married, but he doesn’t know that he is engaged to a heroin addict. Sara and her mother Sima decide they have to do something about the situation once and for all, but it proves to be a tough test for both of them. The mother does her maximum to save her daughter, but she faces a painful attack on her hitherto untroubled middle-class status. Desperate Sara is depressive and uncontrollable and the drug rehabilitation specialists they try to contact cannot guarantee when, or if, Sara will come through it. This raw, psychological drama describes relationships stretched to their limits, and avoids simplification, melodrama and ugliness as an end in itself. The film has already attracted deserved attention at the IFF in Toronto. Its appeal is enhanced by the performance of the talented actress playing Sara, Baran Kosari, the daughter of director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad.

About the director

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad (b. 1954, Teheran) studied film direction and began as a script supervisor and assistant director for Iranian television. She established herself as a documentary filmmaker and in 1986 debuted with her feature film Off-Limits (Kharej az mahdudeh). Her film The Blue-Veiled (Rusari abi, 1995) won the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno IFF, and her film Under the Skin of the City (Zir-e poost-e shahr, 2001) brought her a number of awards, in particular, the NETPAC at the Karlovy Vary IFF in 2001 and the Special Jury Prize at the Moscow IFF. She also won a prize for her film Our Times (Ruz-egar-e ma, 2002 – NETPAC award at the Locarno IFF in 2002). Mohsen Abdolvahab debuted with the documentary film Hamsaran-e haj-abbas (2000 – Silver Wolf at the Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam in 2001). He worked with Rakhshan Bani-Etemad on the films Gilane (2005) and Mainline.