Pay Back

Pay Back

2010 · 90 min · ★ 4.0 · Comedy, Crime, Drama

Ziba and three of her prison cohorts, recently released from a Tehran prison, settle in an out of town doctor's house posing as house sitters and embark on a get rich quick scheme. They plan to mug the lecherous men who give a ride to ladies waiting at street sides for a pickup, which was- and is, to some extent, now- how some prostitutes found work back in the time in Iran. The film portrays the characters as well as the social origins of these men, and as it progresses, explores the backgrounds of these women.

Directed by Tahmine Milani · Written by Tahmine Milani

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3h 16m together

Pay Back

Untaken Paths

Both from Tahmine Milani.

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An official is sent from his home in Tehran to hear the final appeal of a woman sentenced to death, a political prisoner. The official's wife of nearly 20 years, Fereshteh Samimi, writes him a letter to read when he reaches the hotel - the story of her student days during the revolution of 1978. We see the story in flashbacks as he reads: she leaves her province on scholarship, joins a Communist youth group, avoids arrest, and comes under the sway of a suave older man, Roozbeh Javid, a literary-magazine editor. As she tells her husband about the hidden half of her life, Fereshteh asks that he listen to the woman facing execution, a woman and therefore one of Iran's hidden half.
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