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This new film from veteran Danish documentarian Eva Mulvad offers a poignant portrait of a family of asylum seekers desperate to start a new life but stalled in bureaucratic limbo.
Tensions run high from the opening minutes. A desperate man in Tehran speaks to the camera: “I’m not sure if, tomorrow, I’ll be dead or alive.” This is Sahand, who has been in a long-term adulterous relationship with Leila, despite Iran’s threat of the death penalty for infidelity. Now, the couple is fleeing the country with Mani, their four-year-old love child.
Love is what holds the family together. It brings them back from the brink of despair, as Sahand and Leila take turns being strong for each other and their son. For those handling their case, the family represents a problem of classification; for Mulvad, and for us, they are simply decent people looking for safe harbour.