Talented wrestler Iman (Payman Maadi), his wife Maryam (Marall Nasiri) and their daughters Asal (Nicole Mehrbod) and Sahar (Diana Farzami) are forced to flee Iran when rumours about Imam’s sexuality start to circulate. They find refuge in a hotel-turned-refugee centre in northern Sweden. When Imam joins the Swedish national wrestling squad in attempt to expedite their asylum application, the rumours start to resurface.
This is certainly a heartfelt film, confronting a broken asylum system, and you feel for Imam having to hide his homosexuality. All the performances are effective, especially an intense Maadi and a natural Mehrbod. It also has a foreboding score by Jon Ekstrand and Carl-Johan Sevedag.
However, in many ways Maadi is an unsympathetic character. He treats his wife very shabbily despite her covering up his indiscretions. That lessens the impact. Additionally, at over two hours, the story is overstretched, though the ending works well.
Rating: 7 out of 10