This “finely calibrated drama” (Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader) looks at life in the Afghan exile community in Iran. Mohsen Tanabandeh was justly praised for his powerful performance as Azim, a night-shift worker who has saved the money to send his mother (Fatemeh Hosseini) and his brother’s family to live a better life in Germany. But at the last minute, his brother refuses to take their elderly matriarch, and Azim is left facing a life-and-death choice as her health deteriorates. “Everything in this sensitively observed film—from the play of velvety chiaroscuro lighting to the impersonal demeanor of hospital staffers and the poignant dignity of first-time actor Hosseini—builds a sense of quiet desperation and ineluctable fate, culminating in an effect that is almost novelistic in terms of sweep, tone, and psychological depth.” (Gronvall) (Dir.: Jamshid Mahmoudi, Afghanistan/Iran, 2018, 89 min., Persian with English subtitles)