Smoke & Mirror

This small and intimate psychological drama deals with two powerful motifs: addiction and disillusion. Arezoo returns home to Iran after twenty years of living abroad. She does so not only because she wants to rekindle her relationship with her mother, but also because she never has stopped feeling like a foreigner in other countries and has plans to start a new life here. Not fully aware of the fact that this country works in a very different way than she is used to, she dreams about starting a boarding school and helping people. As she tries to get used to an Iran that is no longer home to her, her complex and complicated relationship with her mother comes to light. The mother, once a diva, has not managed to enjoy life in the wake of the Revolution and her husband's death, and now she spends her days smoking. The only person close to her seems to be her servant, an older lady. Will she ultimately give in to her daughter's dream to get closer again? The film sensitively deals with the relationship between a mother and her adult daughter, and also carefully illustrates the estrangement and loneliness of an ex-pat returning home. In doing so, it gives its audience an impression of the changes going on in Iranian society nowadays. (LC)