Rasoul Sadrameli creates an interesting exploration of gender and friendship in contemporary Iran.

Mahtab (Soha Niasti) and Ava (Fereshte Arastouise) are best friends. Ava is wealthy and persuades Mahtab to join her on a college trip to Isfahan. When Ava falls ill and is hospitalised, Mahtab must decide how much to tell Ava’s parents.

Ava’s anxieties and her troubled relationship with handsome Ali (Pedram Sharifi) are secrets in a society where women are held to different standards than men. Mahtab’s conversations with an unconscious Ava reveal the cracks in her own life and relationship with her cousin, Mahsoor (Babak Hamidian). Trust is a key issue – Ava didn’t trust Ali, something that perhaps created her fragility of mind or was caused by it, Mahsoor doesn’t trust Mahtab, and perhaps with reason as her friendship with Ali crosses the boundaries of what is acceptable. It seems she is the only one who is held accountable and has all the culpability but none of the power.

There are many small indications of the expectations placed on women, from Mahtab’s mother’s exhortation for her to be a ‘proper woman’ to sustain Mahsoor’s usefulness to their family to the discipline meted out by the college for Mahtab’s behaviour.

Niasti carries the film. We like her although she is selfish and self absorbed. Arastouie shines like a light before her fall but we can believe she would have been hard work as a friend or partner in a world where mental illness is shameful.

The ending is open to interpretation and is light and optimistic in mood, although its subtleties point to a life for Mahtab that perhaps has not changed.

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