Leila (Layla Mohammad), a spirited young Iranian American woman seems to be a constant source of disappointment to her conventional mother Shireen (Niousha Noor). After marrying and then splitting up with a woman, she has a one night stand with actor Maximillian (Tom Byrne), resulting in her becoming pregnant.
This mixture of emotional drama and broad comedy could easily not have worked. But Maryam Keshavarz, who also wrote the screenplay, directs with a real visual flair. There seemed to be an unnecessarily elongated flashback to the early stages of Shireen’s marriage when she lived in a tiny Iranian village, but the time spent on that paid off in a touching moment later.
Mohammad is captivating, even when Leila acts frustratingly, and her relationship with her eight brothers felt very realistic. In an all round good supporting cast, Byrne is disarmingly funny.
I would have liked there to be more funny moments, but this is an impressive achievement by Keshavarz.
Rating: 7 out of 10