Here Without Me (Inja bedoone man)
This contemporary Iranian adaptation of Tennessee Williams'
The Glass Menagerie, portrays the clash between the dreams and the harsh reality of a single-parent family struggling to survive in contemporary Tehran.
The mother, who works hard in a factory to support herself and her two children, lives in fear of being laid off. Her sole dream is to find a match for her impossibly shy, lame daughter, who in turn dreams of an impossible love. Her son, who works in a warehouse, loves the cinema and dreams of of being a poet.
Shot between the home and the industrial work places of both mother and son, the film is evocative of a particular part of Tehran. Despite the realism of the location, writer/director Bahram Tavakoli inflects his trademark spirituality.
The film boasts outsanding performaces. The role of the daughter seems written for the ever luminescent Negar Javaherian and Fatemeh Motamed-Arya's outstanding performance as the mother brought her the Best Actress Award, Montreal.
