Maryam accidentally kills her husband Nasser, and is sentenced to death. The only person who could save her life is Nasser’s daughter, Mona. All she has to do is to appear on a popular live TV show and forgive Maryam. In front of millions of viewers during Yalda, the Persian winter solstice celebration, forgiveness proves difficult for the two women, as they are forced to relive the past. Alluding to a real, popular Iranian TV Show, the television studio serves as a stage for a chamber play that also explores the social dimensions behind the personal drama.
Massoud Bakhshi was born in 1972 in Tehran. He received his BSc in Agricultural Engineering in 1995, and in 1999 he moved to Italy to study filmmaking. His first feature film, A Respectable Family (2012) was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival in 2012. Yalda is his second feature film.
