Reviews

This review is just after watching the first 20 minutes, which presents a kind of different story rather than the rest of the movie:

This is a documentary depicting the realities regarding the so called brain drain in Iran, the scape of the genius and educated students from Iran to the advanced countries, specially USA and Canada. The scenario is deeply impressive; it does not judge, but tries to represent the truth based on what the real cases and witnesses say...I liked the story one of the cases (Ms. Eslami) said regarding the Canadian people; they truly are very kind guys, always smiling and saying hi to the strangers; this is an epic scene which one can not even think about it while he/she is in Iran. ... Anyways, the elaborate revisions, the music and the interesting interviews made it to be on a good standing standard.

Based on my opinion, this movie was even better that A Saparation, an award winning Farhadi's film.

Farhadi proves adept at controlling the tone of his film. By slowly setting up the situation and the complex nexus of relationships between the characters, he lulls the audience into thinking the film will continue in a comic mode until Elly's disappearance. From then on, the film takes a serious tone. Lies come back to haunt the characters, and the consequences of these are unforgiving. Some of these lies were told due to particular proprieties necessary within Iranian society. The brilliance of Farhadi's script and direction becomes most apparent in the latter stages of the film. As one secret after another is revealed, Farhadi deftly maps out the shifts in the perceptions and behaviour of the characters toward each other as well as the viewer's perception of the characters. Farhadi's cast is uniformly excellent, especially Farahani, who compellingly registers Sepideh's shock at how her seemingly innocent matchmaking has taken such a tragic turn, as well as the way her character, like others in the film, is revealed to not be what it initially appears.