Here Without Me

A striking family drama based on Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, HERE WITHOUT ME is set in the confines of a troubled household in modern Tehran. Sad-eyed Ehsan performs a mind-numbing factory job, though he'd rather be a poet and is desperate to leave Iran. He escapes to the local cinema when his home life threatens to stifle him. Ehsan's fragile disabled sister Yalda seldom leaves the apartment, spending her days polishing her collection of glass animals. The siblings' mother Farideh micromanages the lives of her adult children, holding down several jobs to make ends meet; but her all-consuming passion is to find a suitor for Yalda. She persuades Ehsan to invite his colleague Reza to dinner, throwing this household of jangled nerves into a state of high anxiety. Fatemeh Motamed-Aria won the Best Actress award at the Montreal World Film Festival for her portrayal of the mother who fights within the strictures of her modest life to secure her family's future. (In Persian with subtitles) – B.B.