No Date, No Signature (2017)

Directed by: Vahid Jalilvand | 104 minutes | drama, thriller | Actors: Navid Mohammadzadeh, Amir Agha’ee, Hediyeh Tehrani, Zakiyeh Behbahani, Sa’eed Dakh, Alireza Ostadi

Accidents are always in a small corner. In ‘No Date, No Signature’, the second feature film by Iranian filmmaker Vahid Jalilvand, protagonist Kaveh Nariman actually causes an accident through no fault of his own on his way home from work. Due to a wrong steering maneuver by another road user, he has to swerve, as a result of which he hits a moped, on which four (!) people were sitting. Kaveh stops immediately. The family he hit escapes unscathed. The father, Moosa, grumbles and demands that Kaveh call the police, but Kaveh declares that he is a doctor and insists on examining the oldest child first. The kid, Amir, is complaining of some headache. He offers to pay for the damage and take the family to the hospital, but Moosa only wants financial compensation. Kaveh still gives directions on how to get to the clinic, but Moosa waves his help away, pretending he’s in control.

The next day we see Kaveh (Amir Agha’ee) at work. He turns out to be a forensic doctor and therefore examines deceased people, whose cause of death is not immediately clear. Much to his shock, a colleague lists the name of eight-year-old Amir (Alireza Ostadi) as one of the corpses to be examined. Sayeh Behbahani (Hediyeh Tehrani) takes over the investigation at Kaveh’s request. She concludes that the boy must have died of botulism (food poisoning). Kaveh is torn by conflicting feelings. Doesn’t the accident have something to do with the boy’s death? What should he do? Sharing his knowledge also means revealing his involvement in the accident.

From that moment on we follow the family that is in deep mourning. Moosa (Navid Mohammadzadeh) and his wife Leila appear to be hiding something, Sayeh discovers in a conversation with the parents. Is Moosa still to blame for the death of their son? And what does her colleague Kaveh have with this family?

‘No Date, No Signature’ is a nice sketch of how feelings of guilt – rightly or wrongly – can consume a person. The screenplay, for which the director is also responsible, is layered and offers a fascinating insight into complex characters, who react differently than you would expect at first glance. The natural acting of the actors makes the story compelling and always believable. You have to be a really cool frog not to get hit by the harrowing scene in the slaughterhouse. While the two male leads are very impressive, Navid Mohammadzadeh in particular is unforgettable as a father who is devastated by grief he may have caused, the two actresses are also very strong. Hediyeh Tehrani and Zakieh Behbahani portray two women who could not be further apart in terms of social status, but at the core are powerful women who stand up for themselves and their principles.

Visually, the film is also to die for. All the warmth has been removed from the colours, so that the look of the film matches the emotions at play. ‘No Date, No Signature’ is a well acted and beautiful looking drama that shows how small events and especially human decisions can have the biggest consequences. If you like the recent Iranian cinema of, for example, Asghar Farhadi (‘A Separation’), then you should definitely give this gem a chance. Bet you’ll be surprised?