The Twilight(HKAFF 2019)

Starting his career with documentaries and short films, Mohammad Rasoulof impressed with his debut feature, a naturalistic docudrama that reveals the social ills afflicting Iran’s prison system. Featuring real-life prisoners playing themselves, the film centers on habitual offender Ali, who seems destined for a life behind bars. However, a sympathetic warden devises a plan to reform Ali: he marries Ali off to female inmate Fatemeh in hopes of breaking the recidivist loop. Through once-a-week conjugal visits, the two form a bond and produce a child. But upon their release back into society, the ex-con couple discover that normalcy and absolution may be beyond their reach.