A portrait of modern Iran's young and restless, Hossein Keshavarz's shot-on-the-sly ensemble piece focuses on a group of Tehran-based twentysomethings trying to negotiate life under the country's conservative Islamic government. As with other recent indie Iranian films targeting the nation's next-Gen frustrations---see No One Knows About Persian Cats, Circumstance---the very existence of this tale of social repression acts a middle finger to the powers that be. Subversive elements or not, this is essentially little more than a TV soap opera spiced with hot-button topics (gender issues, clandestine gay trysts), and the combo of TV melodramatics and mumblecore-ish aesthetics eventually wears out its welcome.
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