BEAUTIFUL CITY
[SHAHR-E ZIBA]
In a juvenile detention facility, 18-year-old Akbar (Hossein Farzi-Zadeh) awaits execution for murdering his girlfriend when he was 16. Meanwhile, outside the prison walls, paroled petty thief A'la (Babak Ansari) offers to help Akbar's sister, Firoozeh (Taraneh Alidoosti, in the first of her four collaborations with director Asghar Farhadi), secure clemency from the dead girl's vengeful father. As A'la and Firoozeh navigate a complex gauntlet of legal and emotional red tape, they find themselves growing unexpectedly close — a tentative romance skillfully woven into the film's life-or-death narrative. Rooted in spectacular performances by Alidoosti (fresh from her star-making debut in I AM TARANEH, I AM FIFTEEN YEARS OLD) and Ansari, Farhadi's second feature is a human-scale morality play of shattering force. (Note courtesy of Film at Lincoln Center.) DIR/SCR Asghar Farhadi; PROD Iraj Taghipoor. Iran, 2004, color, 98 min. In Persian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 98 Minutes
Opening Date: Sunday, April 24, 2022
Genre: Drama