Leila

It's not a scenario that most Western audiences will identify with -- a young bride proves incapable of bearing children and is compelled to find her husband a second wife -- but veteran Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui's Leila proves a subtle and ultimately devastating exploration of love's perversity. Deeply in love with husband Reza (Ali Mosaffa) -- who insists that he doesn't want children and is more than happy with her alone -- Leila (Leila Hatami) is prevailed upon by her harpy of a mother-in-law (Mohammad Reza Sharifinia) to collaborate in arranging a series of interviews between Reza and prospective new mates. Despite her beaming innocence and her ingenuous voiceover narration, Leila is no victim but the unwitting perpetrator of an act of self-destructive vengeance, perhaps against the intransigent misogyny of her society, perhaps against her own compliance and her husband's spinelessness. With its limpid performances accented by unassumingly brilliant images -- a single pearl from a broken necklace against blue tiles, the rustle of a wedding gown on a staircase -- Leila transforms a cultural anomaly into a universal tragedy.

-- Peter Keough