Mohammad Rasoulof keeps his political critique subtle in this early drama set almost completely on a rusting hulk of an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.

There is a whole community on this ship, overseen by the seemingly benevolent Captain Nemat (Ali Nasirian) although there is iron in his gentle control. The conditions are basic, everyone is expected to work, and the captain proudly tells a new arrival that there is no rent but costs will be deducted from anything they earn. This includes medical care – with the captain as the resident doctor – and extends to the captain taking on a paternal and autocratic role in protecting the young unmarried women when their fathers are absent.

There are two narrative threads, one about a young man Ahmad (Hossein Farzizade) in love with one of the daughters of an absent father and it’s clear early on that his case is hopeless. The girl (Neda Pakdaman), whose name is never mentioned (she is ‘the girl’ in the credits), barely gets to speak and whatever lack of choice that poverty brings, it is exponentially increased for women.

From my understanding, all of the people on the ship, who are struggling just to survive, are part of an ethnic and religious minority. Their prospects are not great and so the ship, ramshackle and rusting, provides them with everything they need.

The other thread is that the ship is sinking. At first in denial, the captain realises an opportunity which will require him to have absolute authority. It is this authority and how he treats Ahmad where we see the iron in his paternalism. 

The political allegory perhaps is him as the dictator, being a father but one who will only go so far to help you if you step out of line. The ship also seems an allegory of the planet, something that is overcrowded, sufficient but slowly being submerged. The school teacher who tries to warn the captain that the ship is sinking is a climate activist trying to convince a denier that the world is in peril.  The young boy, Little Fish, who spends his days in the bowels of the ship saving the fish that inadvertently find their way through the cracks and holes, is the ecologist focused simply on saving life.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it. The setting is a major character in the film, with Rasoulof and cinematographer Reza Jalali making the most of the ladders and holes and cracks in the metal and the sun setting orange in the verdigris sea. 

It’s ending is equal parts hopeless and hopeful, although I don’t hold out much hope for the captain’s ability to really meet the needs of his people.