Son-Mother
A widow who works tirelessly at a failing factory in sanctions-gripped Iran receives a marriage proposal that could mean financial security, but could also tear her family apart. As economic sanctions…
Son-Mother
A widow who works tirelessly at a failing factory in sanctions-gripped Iran receives a marriage proposal that could mean financial security, but could also tear her family apart. As economic sanctions tighten on Iran, it is the voiceless who suffer most. Leila (Raha Khodayari), a widow who works tirelessly at a failing factory, is trying to provide for her infant and her 12-year-old son, Amir (Mahan Nasiri). A solution to her financial hardships comes in the form of a marriage proposal from the factory bus driver, Kazem, who is eager to provide. Weighing heavily on Leila's conscience is one unwavering caveat: as Kazem has a young daughter of Amir's age, tradition and propriety dictate that Amir cannot share the family home. Under the judgmental eyes of her community and her hostile co-workers, Leila is forced to consider a utilitarian decision for her family that could also fracture it. In her fiction-feature debut, Mahnaz Mohammadi draws on the compassion and patience she honed as a documentary filmmaker to craft an authentic story of a relationship between a mother and a son, threatened by their culture, in all its tense complexity. Dividing the film into narratives that show the experiences of each protagonist, Mohammadi masterfully uses focused dialogue to draw out sensitive performances from her leads. —Toronto International Film Festival Leila is a single working mom of two. The factory she works at faces a crisis and jobs are at stake. Kazem, the factory bus driver, proposes marriage to Leila, but she hesitates to accept his conditions. Kazem has a daughter the same age as her 12-year-old son, Amir, and since tradition frowns upon a young girl sharing a household with her step-brother, Kazem tells Leila not to bring her son until he marries his daughter off. After Leila is fired from her job, she makes the decision to stay with Kazem and leave Amir at a boarding school for deaf children for a while she tries to manage his return. There, Amir is forced to pretend he's deaf-and-dumb, and after a few months tries to run away to search for his mother. On the run, he faces Kazem who asks him to think about his family's future. Amir has to decide. —brahamdali
Son-Mother
Drama
Film Details
A widow who works tirelessly at a failing factory in sanctions-gripped Iran receives a marriage proposal that could mean financial security, but could also tear her family apart. As economic sanctions tighten on Iran, it is the voiceless who suffer most. Leila (Raha Khodayari), a widow who works tirelessly at a failing factory, is trying to provide for her infant and her 12-year-old son, Amir (Mahan Nasiri).
A solution to her financial hardships comes in the form of a marriage proposal from the factory bus driver, Kazem, who is eager to provide. Weighing heavily on Leila's conscience is one unwavering caveat: as Kazem has a young daughter of Amir's age, tradition and propriety dictate that Amir cannot share the family home. Under the judgmental eyes of her community and her hostile co-workers, Leila is forced to consider a utilitarian decision for her family that could also fracture it.
In her fiction-feature debut, Mahnaz Mohammadi draws on the compassion and patience she honed as a documentary filmmaker to craft an authentic story of a relationship between a mother and a son, threatened by their culture, in all its tense complexity. Dividing the film into narratives that show the experiences of each protagonist, Mohammadi masterfully uses focused dialogue to draw out sensitive performances from her leads. —Toronto International Film Festival Leila is a single working mom of two.
The factory she works at faces a crisis and jobs are at stake. Kazem, the factory bus driver, proposes marriage to Leila, but she hesitates to accept his conditions. Kazem has a daughter the same age as her 12-year-old son, Amir, and since tradition frowns upon a young girl sharing a household with her step-brother, Kazem tells Leila not to bring her son until he marries his daughter off.
After Leila is fired from her job, she makes the decision to stay with Kazem and leave Amir at a boarding school for deaf children for a while she tries to manage his return. There, Amir is forced to pretend he's deaf-and-dumb, and after a few months tries to run away to search for his mother. On the run, he faces Kazem who asks him to think about his family's future.
Amir has to decide. —brahamdali.