The Peddler

A trilogy of low-key misery set in the poor quarters and shanty suburbs of modern Teheran, The Peddler plumbs depths of unhappiness usually the territory of David Lynch, with none of his redeeming humour. From the title shot - of a pickled foetus revolving slowly in a bottle - onwards, the stories are grisly viewing. Babies are abandoned to the mercies of grinning lunatics; sheep are slaughtered in protracted detail; the elderly are left to rot. Mankind lives in terror, courting death; the overall effect is numbing.