Beyond the Wall

The political boiling point is reached in this chamber thriller about a desperate mother of young children, who flees a demonstration that gets out of hand and ducks from the cops in a suicidal man’s suburban apartment.

The blind Ali is thinking about ending his life but is interrupted when someone pounds at the door. The police are looking for a woman who is supposed to be somewhere in the enormous apartment building where he lives, which is a peripheral residential area somewhere in Iran. Leila has fled from the police after having lost her son during a violent demonstration and ends up in the apartment where Ali fumbles around between the walls. The acclaimed director Vahid Jalilvand (Wednesday, May 9, GFF 2016) tells a claustrophobic and nearly impressionistic story about two desperate people who are forced to rely on each other in a vulnerable situation. The film is simultaneously a convincing, sensual portrayal of a blind man’s understanding of reality and an intelligent allegory of political oppression in Iran.

• Jonas Holmberg