Here without me / Inja bedoone man, 2011, 100:00 min

This contemporary Iranian adaptation of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie, portrays the clash between the dreams and the harsh reality of a struggling single-parent family in contemporary Tehran. The mother, works hard in a factory, her sole dream find a match for her impossibly shy daughter who in turn dreams of an impossible love; her son dreams mostly through cinema. Shot between the home and the work places of mother and son, the film is evocative of a specific part of Tehran. But despite realism of place, writer/director Bahram Tavakoli inflects his trademark spirituality. All the performances are strong; the role of the daughter seems written for the ever luminescent Negar Javaherian and Fatimeh Motamedarya’s outstanding performance as the mother brought her the Best Actress Award, Montreal.