Shahram and Abbas

This witty yet tragic longish short film is about two Iranian refugees – a journalist in his 40s and an adventurous yet lonely man in his late 20s – who pretend to be a gay couple in order to obtain asylum. What starts off as a relatively straight forward plan becomes slightly more complicated when the younger man falls in love with an African lady with a child in the refugee camp. Things are further complicated when their documents claim they were whipped by the authorities prior to their leaving of the country due to their sexuality. This is a really entertaining short film. The acting by the “odd couple” is great; there is a real chemistry between the two men. The cinematography is excellent – I especially loved the look of the snow scene. There are some really funny moments in this film, although all of them are quite subtle. It also has a very cleaver and satisfying ending.