After taking French audiences by surprise with the highly successful La Loi de Téhéran, Iranian director Saeed Roustaee 's Leila et ses Frères (Leila and Her Brothers) is his first film in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Starring Navid Mohammadzadeh, Taraneh Alidoosti, Saeed Poursamimi and Payman Maadi (already present in La Loi de Téhéran). See it in cinemas on August 24!
A veritable fresco (the film lasts 2h39), Leila et ses frères is as much about the intimate situation of its characters as it is about that of Iran. The siblings face up to the country's changes, while at the same time enduring its traditions, which confronts the five characters with insoluble dilemmas: should they stay within the law? Should they sacrifice everything to preserve their honor, or humiliate themselves to succeed? Discussions often lead to dead ends, and getting out seems impossible, despite the protagonists' best intentions.
Unfortunately, the film did not win any awards at the Cannes 2022 Film Festival.
Synopsis:
Leila has dedicated her whole life to her parents and four brothers. Hard hit by an unprecedented economic crisis, the family is drowning in debt and is being torn apart by personal disillusionment.
To get them out of this situation, Leila hatches a plan: buy a store to start a business with her brothers. They each put in their life savings, but they lack one last source of financial support.
At the same time, and to everyone's surprise, their father Esmail pledges a large sum of money to his community in order to become its new godfather, the highest honor in Persian tradition.
Little by little, the actions of each member bring the family to the brink of implosion, while the patriarch's health deteriorates.
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Review:
This Iranian family drama is reminiscent of the best films by Ken Loach(Sorry we missed you, Me, Daniel Blake) and the Safdie brothers(Uncut Gems), in its depiction of insurmountable precariousness, the main characters' numerous failed attempts and their propensity to systematically make the wrong decisions. If you like social cinema, you won't be disappointed. What's more, the constant tension that Roustaee managed to instill in his previous film returns in fits and starts, ensuring that thefilm remains gripping throughout.
From then on, the film becomes truly moving. The viewer becomes enraged as he witnesses the downfall of this family, which even when it seems to be getting back on its feet, ends up relapsing even more heavily. The dialogues, the film's great strength, and their interpretation sublimate this broken family, whose patriarch prefers to ruin himself to preserve his honor, while his own children are unable to escape their misery.
This obviously provokes strong resentment, and a moving wedding scene, the film's climax, will finish off even the most sensitive viewer. Saeed Roustaee's long-term approach reveals a truly powerful work , from which it's hard not to come away stunned. It's great cinema, hard and frustrating, but the writing is prodigious. What the filmmaker manages to produce is truly impressive!
Dates and Opening Time
Starts August 24th, 2022
Average duration
2 h
39 min
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