Film Screening: 'Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness' (Virtual)

When: March 16, 2021 6:30pm
Film poster. Girl with a pink background

From Roger Ebert: "Maryam (Sadaf Asgari) a young woman in her 20s, is strong-armed by her mother into appearing on the show 'Joy of Forgiveness' on the Iranian winter solstice holiday Yalda. The widely watched 'Joy of Forgiveness' is convicted murderer Maryam's one chance to avoid being executed for the killing of her husband, a decades-older ad agency executive. If Maryam's story resonates, she could stay alive. But she has many people to convince – not just the show's producer, host and control room, but also its studio audience, the 30 million viewers watching at home, and, most importantly, her husband’s only child and Maryam's former friend Mona (Behnaz Jafari).

'Yalda' is such a tightly contained film, with nearly everything occurring within the reality show’s set or at a nearby traffic stop, that a sense of claustrophobia is present from the beginning. Adding to that tension is how often the characters' memories and explanations conflict with one another: Maryam's mother has a different understanding of her daughter's relationship with her husband than Maryam herself, while Maryam and Mona spar over how the former became ingratiated into the latter’s family. Baked into Bakhshi's script is a consideration of Iranian social dynamics, and the cast's naturalistic performances make clear the deep divisions in economic classes, in particular between Iranians who stay in the country and those who are able to leave for new lives in Europe, Canada or the United States. The ensemble is tapping into real mistrust between certain groups of Iranian citizens and how contrastingly they view work, marriage and family, and that wariness leaves an impression."

This event is part of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies' Spring 2021 Film Series, and will be screened online through Zoom. Registration is required; find more information by using the link below!


Audience: All
Audience size: Small (1-50)

Where

Campus: Virtual

Address

United States
US

Contact info & links

Contacts

Megan Young Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Requests for disability-related accommodations should be directed to the event's primary contact: Megan Young