Happenstance alone saved this movie from oblivion, and how lucky we are for it—a moody tale of ugly family and class dynamics, reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe, complete with an utterly unexpected, numbing final shot.

Aslani's vision is still breathtakingly distinctive, an incisively devastating social critique embedded in a complex tale of intrigue, greed, oppression, and murder.

Aslani pulls story threads together with an elegant moving camera that doesn't immediately give up all the secrets a scene may contain.

An ornate Tehran mansion hosts a fateful tussle for the spoils of a late matriarch in this Iranian melodrama.