Ava

Ava is an sixteen year old high school student in Tehran. She plays the violin, hangs out with her friends, experiments with make up and has a bit of thing for her friend's brother, with whom she plays duets. The high school she goes to is girls only and somewhat repressive. A harmless afternoon spent with the aforementioned brother results in her being taken by her mother to the gynaecologist for a virginity assessment, which she's naturally pretty upset about, particularly when she discovers that her mother was pregnant when she got married. Her supportive and seemingly fairly liberal parents are suddenly part of the repressive and paranoid regime that operates at her school.

So Ava the movies paints a picture of a society that most Westerners are uncomfortable with. We mourn that Ava has to go through what she does, and that her parents are complicit in putting her through it. Unfortunately, Ava the girl isn't a very charismatic character and the whole film is a bit grim. Watch the trailer so you get the gist, but don't bother to go to the film.

Anne's rating 1/5