Thursday, June 14 | 5:30 & 8 pm
Based on writer-director Sadaf Foroughi’s own adolescent experiences, Ava tells the gripping, coming-of-age story of a teenage girl trapped in an oppressively strict traditional society. Living with her parents in the Iranian capital of Tehran, Ava is a typical teenage girl: she is close with her school friends, fights with her rigid mother, and is intent on (secretly) dating her rehearsal partner, Nima. When Ava’s mother catches her in a lie, she takes her daughter to the gynecologist. Enraged by the gesture, Ava begins to rebel from a world where the public and private defenders of female purity act on unfounded rumor and scrutinize every private interaction. Combining narrative devices from leading Iranian auteurs Asghar Farhadi and Abbas Kiarostami, Foroughi has produced an accomplished, harrowing first feature that screams with righteous protest.
Director Sadaf Foroughi | 2017 | In Farsi with English subtitles | 103 minutes | NR | DCP