Iron Island

What future can there be on board a sinking ship? Both directly and metaphorically, this questions resonates through Iron Island, in which a group of poor, homeless families from Iran's southern Arab minority have habitated an abandoned oil tanker somewhere in the Persian Gulf. To survive, they sell the remaining oil along with pieces of metal.

The organizer and sovereign of all this is Captain Nejat. His rules the ship with love and care, but also with an iron fist. Moreover, Nejat suffers from delusions of grandeur, believing that he can save the inhabitants from all danger, and he turns a blind eye to the fact that she ship is steadily sinking into the sea.

Iron Island is a lively, entertaining and heart-wrenching tale of a marginalised community trying to survive. Mohammad Rasoulof makes the most of every little corner of the ship, every little glance, every flicker of light and every shadow. At the same time, it also brings forth a criticism of authoritarian political rule, embodied in Captain Nejat's highly ambiguous character. Cato Fossum

Mohammad Rasoulof (b. 1972) is one of Iran’s most renowned filmmakers. A sociologist by training, he later studied film editing at the Sooreh University and made a number of short films in the 1990s. Rasoulof has made seven feature films since his debut in 2002. His three latest films have all won awards at the Cannes film festival.