Presented by Iranian Film Festival

Directed by Faramarz Gharibian

Starring: Faramarz Gharibian, Homayoun Ershadi, Rambod Javan, Shaghayegh Farahani, Bahareh Kian Afshar and Mohamad Motevaselani

A tightly plotted Iranian film noir, The Sinners opens on the streets of Tehran, where a beautiful woman who developed an independent streak during seven years in the United States meets a violent end. Many people wished her dead—the young lover she spurned, the married boss she blackmailed, the human trafficker she knew too much about, her angry father who felt disrespected—but who could be sinner enough to kill this woman, whose sense of freedom made her a “sinner” in her own land? Two quirky police detectives interview the suspects, revealing past events and motivations through classic noir flashbacks. The mismatched investigators are themselves sinners who use less-than-legal tactics. First-time screenwriter Sam Gharibian (son of veteran Iranian actor-director Faramarz Gharibian) shrewdly channels Hitchcock here, whose philosophy that there’s little difference between thinking about and committing a crime gets an Iranian twist.

Film Note Writer: S. Handsher