SAADATABAD

Iran, 2011, 95 minutes, Colour.
Leila Hatami, Mahnaz Afshar.
Directed by Maziyar Miri.

Saadatabad is the name of an affluent suburb in Teheran. This is a domestic drama. A wife and mother decides to host a birthday party for her husband. She does the shopping, cares for the children, prepares the meal. The various guests arrive. However, her husband is very agitated because of the sinking of cargo – and it emerges that there are underhand and criminal implications of this loss. However, he decides to participate in the party but is on edge. Other guests include a couple who have tensions between them and another couple who are on the verge of separation.

The film uses the conventions of a gathering, friendship, clashes, the disruption of the night, the revelations to each of the characters of their deeper selves.

1. The affluent suburb of Teheran, the shops, homes, the professional world? The Iranian atmosphere? Yet the similarities to the western lifestyle?

2. A domestic drama? Relationships? Non-political?

3. The film taking place over one day, the preparations for the party, the aftermath?

4. The lush sets, photography, décor? The score?

5. Yassi, her age, going shopping, the choice of foods and shops, her child, the nanny? The birthday, the detailed preparations? As hostess, anxious, the tensions of the evening, knowing about the woman and her abortion, giving her shelter? Her husband, his forgetting the birthday, his agitation, the phone calls? The moments of joy, hilarity, singing? The photos? Overhearing her husband, her suspicions? What was she left with at the end?

6. Moysen, his job, late arrival, his birthday, his initially raucous reaction, the concern about the cargo, the continued phone calls, the borrowing of the money, good humour and singing, talk, his offhand manner, the reality of the fraud, the nanny? His facing the sack? An affair?

7. Ali and his partner, the house, preoccupations, getting ready to go, she and her liveliness, the concern about buying the house, the secret? Ali being morose? The confrontations at the party, his not enjoying it, the revelation about the abortion, the upset, his leaving? His partner and her reaction, her experience, the phone calls, the truth, sadness, the others singing, leaving, wandering and going into the house, the darkness?

8. The older couple, she being stern, he liking Yassi? The separation? Their keeping face? His lending the money to Moysen? Involvement?

9. The nanny, relationships?

10. The glimpse of lives, links and relationships, secrecy? The future?