What a waste of my time!!!

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

I've seen a few Iranian movies over the years: "A Taste of Cherries" and "A Separation" are among the notable ones. Another interesting one is Manuchehr Mosayeri's "Donya". Hedieh Tehrani plays a woman who's just returned to Iran after spending some time abroad. She starts up a relationship with a conservative older man who already has a family.This is not one of those movies that throws a lot of things on the screen to catch your attention. Quite the opposite, it requires an attention span since it's all about the characters and their relationships. The subtitles on the copy that I saw were a little bit funny, but it's a movie that I really recommend. One of the most important things that it shows is that behind Iran's government is a population that has to live its day-to-day lives. The election of a moderate to Iran's presidency has created a new opportunity for a lessening of tensions between the US and Iran, so it's important to seize the opportunity.

Both Tehrani as the beautiful title character and Sharifinia as the scheming Hadji make DONYA worthy of a look. Together, they have the looks and the talent to make a great pair of international stars. Though the movie is a tad slow in the early going, it doesn't take long for things to start to jell. The standout here (in my own, ever humble opinion) is Sharifinia: he shows the necessary range to handle most any (acting) situation. (It would be interesting, indeed, to see him play it straight- no humor, no lovable bumbling- in a political thriller or a murder mystery. He has the face for it.) Not to be overlooked, Ms. Tehrani more than holds her own. It would be nice to see the both of them together again in another type of film.

Donya was a huge hit in Iran, further solidifying Hedieh Tehrani's position as the top female box office draw. It is a very funny look at the relationship between an ultra conservative religious married man (Sharifinia)and a care free, modern single woman (Tehrani). Tenrani's charms slowly, but surely, erodes Shrifinia's traditional values, resulting in a series of hilarious events. Donya is well written and very well acted. Sharifinia is particularly good as the confused conservative guy. In fact his success in this role led him to being type cast in many similar roles. Donya is a prime example of those Iranian films which are loved in Iran but go neglected by international film festivals. A classic comedy from Iran.

I was interested in the movie because I understood it was popular in Iran. It was interesting to see the costuming, what was old-fashioned and traditional for men vs. new and western. What the first wife wore, traditional, what Donya wore, modern and alluring, though she was all covered up, she did wear jeans with knee-length shirt, and the way she wore her scarf, though it covered her hair and neck, did give us a better idea of where her waist might be than the more traditional outfit.I don't really understand the ending of the movie. So, did he give Donya fake papers and not really marry her? And, she did it all to get her father's house back from him, and she says that it's like he killed her father, because he bought her father's house years ago?I felt like they made Donya to be a bad person in the end, when her cousin was saying she was no longer pure. Which makes who she is a lot less interesting.