Writer, Director: Ghasem Ebrahimian
Editor: Amir Naderi
with Bahman Maghsoudlou
1988, Color, 106 min., USA
A well-to-do Iranian, Haji, arrives in Manhattan from Tehran with his new bride. Overcome by nostalgia for the old country, his friends hold a traditional feast, slaughtering a sheep in their apartment. Blood seeps through the floor into an apartment below. A bizarre series of events then unfolds as a SWAT team unleashed against the ‘terrorists’ kills the bridegroom, leaving behind a beautiful, bewildered widow and her four zealous suitors. Playing with the tensions of strangers in a strange land, Ghasem Ebrahimian’s intriguing first feature is a witty dark comedy.
Bahman Maghsoudlou’s debut as an actor was well received at the Cannes Film Festival (Director’s Fortnight), 1988.
‘Thoroughly unpredictable…remarkably accomplished…terrific panache…breathtaking.’ –Kevin Thomas, LA Times
‘A masterstroke of black comedy.’ –Elvis Mitchell, LA Weekly
