A Tale Of Shemroon

With a handful of notable exceptions, no matter where you are in the world, taking drugs in films is not a great idea - especially if you end up trying to deal in them as well and the less available cash you have to start with, the more dangerous the game becomes.

This familiar tale is transported to Iran’s Tehran in Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi’s debut, where Iman (Iman Sayad Borhani) is living with his younger brother Payar (Payar Allahyari) and their ailing father, with the trio coming to the death with the recent death of their mother. Dehkordi shows his abilities in the scripting of the brothers, who though having very different personalities - as brothers so often do on film - share a close bond that feels built on a life shared together. Payar is the more introverted and serious of the two, focusing most of his efforts on preparing for bouts in the Muay-Thai ring. Payar meanwhile is much more of a Jack the lad, who never met a party he didn’t like and always knows where to get his hands on the good stuff.

All of this means that a visit from a rich old friend, who has been living in the US is too good an opportunity to miss for Iman, who begins to see the possibilities of making some cash from a particularly good batch of coke he’s come across, just so long as he can do a deal with the kingpin. Borhani is good in the role, brash when he needs to be but showing just enough soft centre to keep him likeable. This scheme and the impact of it, are the driving force of the film, but there are also subplots concerning a sweet relationship that begins to develop between Payar and an old friend of his, Hanna (Masoumeh Beygi) and family tensions between the brothers and their uncle over a plot of land.

That Hanna, like Iman’s hard-partying friend is also living abroad and just dropping in to Tehran is interesting and it's a shame the writer/director didn’t give himself a bit more space to explore the expats’ influence on the day-to-day lives of those who remain in Iran more. He also makes interesting observations on drug taking in the country in general, indicating it is an age-old problem and that the men’s father is also a recovering addict. As it is, the amount of plot strands mean that character and idea development in general is rather thin. But if there’s a lack of fluidity as Dehkordi moves between the various elements of his drama, there’s also plenty of signs he can turn on the style. Two speedy drives along the night roads of the city - one on a motorbike and another in a car - are laced with adrenaline and danger and a brief move into more fantastical symbolism is also striking, although would have worked better if it had been more sustained through the film. It may be a bit on the scrappy side, but Dehkordi proves he knows how to pack a punch when he sees, and more importantly seizes, an opportunity.