Winner of a number of awards at the Locarno Film Festival, this film tells the story of Taraneh (Taraneh Alidoosti), who certainly has her share of problems: motherless, with her father in prison for an unspecified crime, she works to support her bedridden grandmother. Hope lies with the boy next door, who proposes marriage. The two get a temporary licence which allows them to go out in public together without fear of arrest. However, her husband-to-be soon tires of her and leaves for Germany, which is when Taraneh discovers she is pregnant. Despite the position this puts her in, and the scorn she attracts, Taraneh resists the attempted manipulations of the boy’s mother, amongst others, and decides to raise the child on her own.

Touching on a number of controversial issues – divorce, abortion, single motherhood – the film is really the story of Taraneh’s growth to maturity, and her strength and bravery in going against convention.<