Dance With Me

Soroush Sehhat's 2019 Iranian film follows old friends gathered for a birthday. That night they learn Jahangir has a fatal illness, and the meeting that should have been a celebration turns into something else. The structure rests on a single night in a confined space. Matters unspoken for years open one after another; the narrative presents this not as heavy drama but as a tone moving between the comic and the painful. Ali Mosaffa, Javad Ezzati and Hanie Tavassoli take the principal roles. The dialogue is dense and the ensemble carries the film. The narrative does not stage the death, it shows it approaching. Who it's for: those who like Iranian ensemble drama and dialogue-driven narrative. Who it's not for: viewers expecting visual storytelling; the film proceeds almost entirely through talk.