I had heard good things about this movie and I had wanted to see it for years. Finally, I watched it and could not be more disappointed. As an Indian woman who grew up in India and moved to the United States in early adulthood, I can identify with many elements of the Iranian youth culture as well as the western elements in the movie. The big problem with the movie is that many scenes are forced and contrived in an unreal way. And most of the time this forced language is used to make some obvious point that women are suppressed by the men. For example, there is one scene where Mehran says "I'll control my wife, you control your daughter". Never in my life have I heard a man directly say that to another man! And it is hard to imagine that a man would such a thing directly, especially in the type of society/family mehran comes from which is wealthy and well educated. Certainly, control is exercised over the women but it is more subtle and nuanced than that. It is the same way in India and that is why I can identify with this situation. It is almost as if the writer felt she HAD to use such direct land pedantic language because the audience is a fool and won't be able to pick up on subtleties. It is very clear that the film is made for a western audience. If you actually live in Iran or a similar type of culture, you would know that the story line is just bullshit and far from reality. I thought that the writer and director would be Iranian, but after I saw the movie I immediately knew that she must be an Iranian living in the west (without even looking it up). It reeks of the air of superiority that many US directors have when they make films about a foreign culture. The director tried to show that the west is more progressive and "free" because of movies like "Milk" and "Sex and the City". In the scene where the Iranian girls are trying to dub these movies in Farsi, the writer is implying that these western movies are the only outlet they have through which they can start a dialogue about being gay. The idea is good and has lots of scope, but it falls flat when it comes to story line development and capturing the real subtleties of Iranian/Asian culture. Instead of doing a service to the gay community in Iran, I think the writer has done an absolute disservice to the youth of Iran and women in Iran, by trying to show that they can only be considered "free" or progressive when they ape western habits. When really, a woman can be free and independent by many means possible, even while wearing a hijab. I kept waiting for the character development to happen, but it never materializes and the end of the movie just left me feeling empty. Very anti-climatic. If I had a chance to meet the director, I would make sure she knew that she should be ashamed for pandering the the US audience and failing to capture her own culture in all the complexity it has - both the beauty as well as the harsh realities.

I noted this movie on my cable service and had it recorded since I saw it had an 86% favorable audience ranking. Since I am Iranian I was more interested to watch this movie. I had recorded the movie on my DVR some months ago until I got to watch it tonight. Unfortunately I was not impressed by this movie. This movie is about lesbian love between two Iranian teenage girls in post 2009 Iran. The movie is slow moving. There is little character development in the movie. Too many story lines are crammed into this movie and make it incoherent.The plot is perhaps believable for audiences with little actual appreciation of the real life "circumstances" in Iran, who are accustomed to the usual clichés that abound on mass media narratives about Iranian life. For me the plot was not believable, teenage rebellion ala Western teenager, for example purportedly 16 year old girls doing shot after shot at the party, except among the super rich kids, just does not ring true. The addict musician brother who inexplicably turns religious and Islamic moral vigilante but wears a tuxedo to his wedding and dances with unveiled women in very appealing dress and makeup just does not ring true. I give the movie a 5 for effort.

The truth is I didn't have much expectations from this movie, for no special reason. But I was really surprised in a good way at the end!The suppressed emotions these two girls have, the way they are revealed to us, the dreams they have, the way women live in Iran...I was shocked in a way by this movie.. It made me want to search more about the living conditions (for women mostly) in Iran, and in Muslim countries in general.This movie could be the Iranian version of "Fire" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116308/ ). I'm pretty sure you will like this one if you liked Fire.I totally recommend this movie, especially if you're into lesbian movies :)

This is a story of nothing more than two shallow brainless vane (classic) teenage girls who discover ego and feel sorry for themselves. I imagine most females, teen or adult, will not relate to this one. These two young women do nothing but wander and wonder and try to look pretty (desparately.) It was so objectifying of the female gender that I was surprised to see that a women had a hand in the creation of this one. And the lesbian aspect was just so far fetched. I mean, was the author of this script TRYING to detach from 99% of the female society? I imagine she herself must be a shallow vain personality of little substance who uses sexuality as a form of power. I just didn't get this movie. Didn't relate to it.