Stay Alive

Set in a region of Iran close to the Iraqi border, Mehrjui's film concerns the apparently all-too-common phenomenon of young women setting themselves alight in protest against the prison-like conditions of their lives in a society founded on repressive patriarchal tradition. The film focuses on three different women, reacting variously to their predicaments, and is undoubtedly both heartfelt and affecting; but while its narrative style - elliptical, fragmented, even eccentric at times - is ambitious and imaginative, it sometimes makes for a loss of clarity and momentum.