Mahin (Lili Farhadpour), a lonely septuagenarian widow living in the suburbs of Tehran, stumbles upon a second chance of happiness when she strikes up a conversation with Faramarz (Esmaeel Mehrabi), a taxi driver in whom she recognises a familiar spark of anti-establishment rebellion. The two lost souls connect and share a stolen evening spent in wistful reminiscence of the less restrictive pre-revolutionary days, a time when the wearing of the hijab was not required, dancing, and imbibing plenty of Mahin’s robust home brew, despite the regime’s prohibition of alcohol. But as Mahin opens herself up to a new romance, what begins as an unexpected encounter quickly evolves into an unpredictable, unforgettable evening. A poignant, often amusing meditation on love and loss, Moghadam and Sanaeeha’s film is also a critique on a society that offers women no real freedom.

Notes by David O’Mahony