Mainline

Soon Sara’s fiancé will return to Teheran. Finally they can get married. It is just one problem: Sara is a drug addict, which is tough enough in itself but even worse for a young girl in a strictly Moslem country as Iran. Her desperate mother helps her, and after a while forces her, to kick the habit before her fiancé arrives.

Mainline hurts, but at the same time portrays a tender but fraught relationship between mother and daughter. Having spent three months at a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts to prepare, the director’s own daughter is impressive in the role of Sara. The film is shot in a rough yet sublime black-and-white, with a few nuances of colour here and there as small rays of hope. ib