Please Don't Disturb

A mother's courage, hardship, and love, in times of war. In 1988, during the Iran-Iraq war, Gilane escorts her pregnant daughter, Maygol, from the relative calm of their village, Espili, into war-torn Tehran to search for Maygol's husband, Rahman. The journey is arduous and what they find when they reach the capital is dismaying and frightening. Fifteen years later, as another war begins in Iraq, Gillane is at home caring for her son Ismael, who suffers from epilepsy, a byproduct of war. As she cares for him, she hopes for a visit from the doctor and from another daughter, Atefah. "Better be a dog than a mother," she says.

Pari and Farhad are a middle-class couple who are both involved in theater and cinema. They love each other and are happy with their son, but suddenly they are faced with Pari's unplanned pregnancy. Farhad insists on an abortion but Pari believes that abortion is inhuman and cannot accept her husband's idea. A baby, bringing the possibility of making their family world even happier, causes serious disruptions in their lives.

The uneasy relationship between a mother and daughter is made all the more turbulent by drug abuse in this downbeat drama from Iranian filmmakers Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and Mohsen Abdolvahab