‘Leila’ Tells a Powerful Tale of Lives Bound by Tradition

“Leila” is the latest in a long line of superb films that have placed Dariush Mehrjui in the front ranks of filmmakers not only in his native Iran but in international contemporary cinema. For more than 30 years, Mehrjui, a UCLA alumnus, has depicted the harshness of life in his native country with an unflinching yet detached power that frequently verges on the poetic. “Leila” deceptively fits comfortably within the universal genre of socially conscious drama but is as eloquent and devastating as anything he has ever done.

When we meet Leila (Leila Hatami) and Reza (Ali Mosaffa), they strike us as much like any affluent, attractive young couple, deeply in love, with a bright future ahead of them and already living in a spacious, smartly designed contemporary-style home in Tehran. Their views seem as modern and liberated as their decor; Reza steadfastly insists that it matters not in the least that his wife is unable to conceive, and they reject adoption as well as the more drastic measures available to them to attempt to have a child, although they might well have not so decisively dismissed artificial insemination if they had had an inkling of what lay ahead of them.

They don’t reckon with the implacability of Reza’s mother (Jamileh Sheikhi) in her determination that her son have children. She has the shamelessness of the truly ignorant as she begins to bear down on her daughter-in-law, tapping into her guilt over being unable to fulfill her childbearing duties as a traditional wife. It would be a mistake to write off the mother merely as a monster, as destructive as she is, for she is as much a victim of the tradition as those she unleashes it upon in such a crushing manner. With a psychological validity that is all the more terrifying for being so utterly persuasive, Leila, weighed down by her mother-in-law’s incessant pressure, starts convincing herself that her love for her husband can and must be strong enough for her to withstand him taking into their home a second wife who can give him an heir.

The irony here is that just about everyone else in Reza’s family is outraged at Leila’s worsening plight and arguing that the couple should stand up to the overbearing matriarch. That neither can do so in any meaningful way reveals the full and overwhelming force that tradition--embedded in a rigid, even distorted reading of religious beliefs--continues to exert on Iranian society. Even so, Mehrjui is too wise to judge, trusting instead to the sheer power of illuminating the predicament of the young couple, so very well played by Hatami and Mosaffa.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: adult themes and situations.

‘Leila’

Leila Hatami: Leila

Ali Mosaffa: Reza

Jamileh Sheikhi: Reza’s mother

Amir Pievar: Reza’s father

A First Run Features release of a Mehrjui & Farazmand production. Director Dariush Mehrjui. Producers Mehrjui and Faramarz Farazmand. Screenplay by Mahnaz Ansarian and Mehrjui. Cinematographer Mahmud Klari. Editor Mustafa Kherqepush. Music Keivan Jahanshahi. Art director Faryar Javaherian. In Farsi, with English subtitles. Running time: 2 hours, 9 minutes.

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