Border Cafe

Kambozia Patrovi's Border Cafe stars Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy as Reyhan, a young, grieving widow and mother of two who fights Islamic tradition, which not only dictates that her husband's brother take Reyhan as a wife, but also bars her from running the roadside restaurant owned by her late husband. Patrovi, who made the wonderfully perceptive Deserted Station, creates here a delicately realized portrait of a woman's rebellion in a rigid culture, as Reyhan battles her brother-in-law Nasser (Parviz Parastui) for her own autonomy, defiantly reopens the café (working out of sight in the back as a cook to avoid scandal, while an employee waits on customers), and delights in the shy advances of a Greek trucker named Zakariyo (Nikos Papadopoulos), all of which combine to advance her view of herself as an independent woman. Iran's submission in the Best Foreign Film category for the 2006 Oscars (although it was not nominated), Border Cafe is a sublimely glorious film. Highly recommended. (M. Johanson)