Chicken With Plums (Poulet aux prunes)

Set in the fall of 1958 in Tehran, this period piece from Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud (Persepolis) centers on violinist Nasser Ali Khan (Mathieu Amalric) and his troubled romance with Irâne (Golshifteh Farahani). After her father prevents them from marrying, Nasser is crushed and chooses to focus on his music. He even marries another woman in the attempt to avoid thinking about his unrequited love. But he eventually becomes terribly depressed and refuses to eat anything as he contemplates suicide. Based on Satrapi’s graphic novel of the same name, the film explores Nasser’s daily recollections through a series of flashbacks and dreams. While the performances are all solid, cinematographer Christophe Beaucarne deserves extra credit for making this film, which often veers off on inexplicable tangents, come across as a surreal fairytale of sorts.