Run time: 97 mins

(Subtitled)

The unforeseen arrival of unhoped-for happiness infuses this wonderful Iranian drama with heartwarming romance.

Encouraged by her fellow pensioner friends to pursue new romantic beginnings, 70-year-old widower Mahin (Lily Farhadpour) decides to put herself out there again. A run-in with Iran’s morality police further reinvigorates Mahin’s confidence in standing up for what she believes in after she successfully defends a girl who is accused of not properly wearing her hijab. Learning that an elderly taxi driver named Faramarz is also unmarried, Mahin invites him over to her home and they share a glorious rollercoaster of an evening.

Farhadpour shines as the sincere and relatable 70-year-old, and anyone familiar with current events in Iran will recognise the political and personal significance of Mahin’s story. All eyes were on writer-directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha (or, rather, their absence) at the film’s premiere. The duo’s passports were seized by the Iranian government and their travel halted. Their 2020 film Ballad of a White Cow also premiered in the Competition strand of the Berlinale but remains banned in Iran. The regime of their country and its ongoing repression is one thing but, as Mahin proves, the heart still wants what it wants