Iranian film-maker Saeed Roustayi delivers a big, absorbing, character-driven family drama in the Italian-American style with fierce performances, a huge set-piece wedding scene and touches of Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers and Coppola’s The Godfather. There’s even some Arthur Miller amid the angry, painful recrimination.
We get a blistering turn from Taraneh Alidoosti – known for her work on movies by Asghar Farhadi – playing the Leila of the title: a woman driven to distraction by the indolent, incompetent patriarchy. Leila lives with her elderly parents; she is plagued with periodic back pain brought on by stress and overwork and is basically the only regular wage-earner, single-handedly supporting four adult brothers.
Overweight Parviz (Farhad Aslani) works as a toilet cleaner in the mall, but does not make enough to feed his family, which grows as he tries repeatedly for a boy. Musclebound lunk Farhad (Mohammad Ali Mohammadi) is interested only in US wrestling on TV. Bone-idle Manouchehr (Payman Maadi) is looking for dodgy get-rich-quick schemes, not work. And Alireza (Navid Mohammadzadeh) recently quit a factory job whose bosses weren’t coming through with the wages.
