THR lauds Iran film with autistic protag

The Hollywood Reporter has lauded Iranian-Canadian feature ‘Botox’ with autistic protagonist.

The film revolves around two women — one autistic, the other a beautician who gives the film its title — who take matters into their own hands when a dramatic event suddenly removes their brother Emad from the story.

The critique from the pen of Deborah Young with US reputable trade magazine reads,"‘Botox’ is a hard film to second-guess. Its offbeat tone has drawn comparisons to a Coen brothers’ film, but it isn’t as funny as all that. Still, it takes courage to embrace the theme of Iranian women thriving on their own sans men.”

The feature has won the best film and best screenplay awards at the 2020 Torino Film Festival and gained the best first feature prize at the recent Fajr Film Festival in Iran.

“The film works best as an off-key mood piece whose moments of violence are sweetened with the wry humor and sophisticated p.o.v. of [Kaveh] Mazaheri and Sepinood Najian’s screenplay,” Young adds.

The flick by Mazaheri has recently gone on screen at the 2021 Shanghai International Film Festival in China.

AG/AG