YALDA, A NIGHT FOR FORGIVENESS
After being charged with the murder of her much older husband, a young woman goes on a popular Iranian reality show to plead for forgiveness and escape execution.
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, YALDA, A NIGHT FOR FORGIVENESS takes place over the course of one harrowing night and largely within the confines of a sinister television studio. Maryam (Sadaf Asgari) appears before millions of viewers on the sensationalist show Joy of Forgiveness, in which convicted criminals appeal to the relatives of their victims and beg for redemption. Sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of her 65-year-old husband, Maryam must face his only daughter, Mona (Behnaz Jafari), to ask for clemency. However, as the two begin to relive the past on live television, dark and twisted secrets are revealed, leaving Maryam’s outcome dangerously uncertain. From writer and director Massoud Bakhshi (A RESPECTABLE FAMILY), Yalda is a gripping and pointed melodrama that uses its seemingly surreal set-up to reveal all-too-real truths about the pervasiveness of religious law in Iran, and its often dire effects on Iranian women.
CAST: Sadaf Asgari, Behnaz Jafari, Babak Karimi, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy
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