Too much of everything

Excellent adaptation.

Brilliant and touching

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Atafeh has wealthy relatively liberal Iranian parents. She attends parties with her best friend orphan Shireen. They rebel and start a sexual affair. They join other kids to make an outlaw movie. Atafeh's older brother Mehran is a recovering drug addict. He's unemployed and finds support in a mosque. He becomes increasingly religious and installs surveillance cameras in the family home. He's obsessed with Shireen and pushes to marry her. Atafeh's father also faces religious pressure and starts to join his son.The first half isn't anything special. The lesbian affair doesn't feel real. The relationship feels manufactured. Mehran's turn is more compelling. It is sinister and scary. The last act has some good dark turns. I don't think it works completely but it has some good drama.

This is by far the most prized Iranian film made after revolution. Acting, directing, and cinematography is unmatched by any Iranian movie. Unlike other films that have to work under the veil of censorship, this film is real.It's a beautiful, melodic, poetic love story told with color and light. Amazing care is taken to to keep the integrity of the story. Scenes of Iran, locations, props and set designs all have deep and real Iranian roots. I did not see this film when it first came on,I thought it was a porn! but then I saw it and fell in love with it. I see about 5 films a week, this was one of the best!My sincere congratulations to this young director for creating such a master work.

Iranian-American screenwriter and director Maryam Keshavarz's feature film debut which she wrote, premiered in the U.S. Dramatic section at the 27th Sundance International Film Festival in 2011, was shot on location in Lebanon and is a USA-Iran-France co-production which was produced by Karin Chien, Melissa Lee and Maryam Keshavarz. It tells the story about Atafeh, a 16-year-old student who lives in a wealthy family in Tehran with her father Firouz, her mother Azar and her older brother Mehran who has recently returned home from a rehab. Atafeh spends most of her time with her orphaned best friend Shireen who lives with her uncle. Atafeh and Shireen share a dream about leaving Tehran to become singers and they are becoming more than just friends, but then Atafeh's brother meets Shireen and falls in love with her.Finely and acutely directed by Iranian-American filmmaker Maryam Keshavarz, this finely paced fictional tale draws a moving and intimate portrayal of a forbidden romance between two somewhat rebellious 16-year-old girls. While notable for it's naturalistic and atmospheric urban milieu depictions, fine production design by production designer Natasha Kalfayan, cinematography by cinematographer Brian Rigney Hubbaro and costume design by costume designer Lamia Choucair, this character-driven and dialog-driven coming-of-age indie depicts two dense studies of character and contains a prominent score by Indian-American multi-instrumentalist and composer Gingger Shankar.This romantic and engaging drama about identity and the freedom of love, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, subtle character development, entwined stories, multiple viewpoints and the commendable acting performances by Pakistan-born Canadian actress Níkohl Boosheri and French actress Sarah Kazemy in their debut feature film roles and Iranian-born stage director, writer and actor Soheil Parsa. An empathic and mindful love-story which gained, among other awards, the Audience Award-Dramatic at the 27th Sundance International Film Festival in 2011.

A film made by an Iranian expatriate living in the United States. The film is set in Iran, but was filmed in Beirut. The story follows two best friends, Nikohl Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy, who discover a sexual attraction after Kazemy moves in with Boosheri after her dissident parents disappear (and are assumed to have been murdered by the government). Meanwhile, Boosheri's brother, a former drug addict who has become deeply religious after returning from prison, spies on his friends and family, and is completely open to turning any of them into Iran's morality police. This film has mostly been dismissed by critics and viewers (it has a fairly dismal 6.0 rating on IMDb), and I can understand some of their criticisms. It's a little too glossy, a little too polished, and the hot, teenage, lesbian sex is more than a tad exploitative (almost Cinemax-ian at times). But, really, there's a very good human story at the core of this, with very well written and performed characters. Boosheri, in particular, is just fantastic. I think it's also partly dismissed because it wasn't filmed in Iran - if it was, it would have been a critical hit for sure - and the director probably would have been stoned to death, which would make it even more beloved. Keep in mind that the writer/director, Maryam Keshavarz, is actually an Iranian woman who escaped her home country.