Unlike, say, the state of Florida during the last presidential election, officials in Iran go to extremes to make sure that each vote is counted. At least, such is the contention of Babak Payami’s charming if formulaic screwball comedy. On an isolated island off the coast, a two-man army post whiles away the tedium until a parachute drops from a plane with a crate of ballots and a letter ordering them to assist the election inspector who’s arriving from the mainland. Said inspector turns out to be a woman (Nassim Abdi), a perky idealist whose self-assurance and independence belie her obligatory black drapery and veil.

One of the soldiers, a rustic, macho type with an inordinate affection for his firearm (Cyrus Ab), volunteers to baby-sit the stranger, driving her in his jeep from one marginal outpost to another. At this point Secret Ballot takes on the dual aspect of a sociological road movie gently exposing the ironies of Iranian society and an absurdist allegory of human endeavor voided by the indifferent sublimity of Allah’s will. And of course, there is the real secret ballot, the unexpressed opting of the soldier and the woman for each other, which along with Payami’s surreal eye makes this small gem well worth your vote. In Farsi with English subtitles. (123 minutes)