Two years ago, we would definitely have asked Ahmad Bahrami’s “Wasteland” to participate in our competition programme, but the San Sebastian Festival managed to confirm the film before us. However, the producers of the film then decided not to go to San Sebastian, because the Venice Film Festival wanted the film in their programme. Now, two years later, PÖFF is happy to present the new feature film “Waste Town” to the world.

Bemani has spent ten years in jail for killing her husband. Her child was taken away in prison and allegedly given to her husband’s family. Temporarily released, she immediately starts looking for her son. Bemani goes to the car demolition workshop where Ebi, her brother-in-law, works, but he claims not to know anything about the boy’s fate. She finds out, however, that it was Ebi who sold the child to a rich family. Bemani tries to extract more information from the workers of the demolition shop, but they demand an indecent favour in return for the information. As a desperate mother, she is prepared to go to the extremes, but not in the way the men are hoping for.

With his two consecutive films, Ahmad Bahrami stands out as an author with a distinctive style. In this film about hope, revenge and hopelessness, the author has also found a symbol that is significant to the plot and carries a notional generalising meaning: a large hydraulic press.

Mihkel Möölman