Beautiful City

The sophomore feature of Asghar Farhadi. After spending two years in juvenile detention for killing his girlfriend as a teenager, the troubled, young Akbar is transferred to an adult facility shortly after turning 18. No longer a minor, his death sentence will soon be legally carried out. Meanwhile outside, Ala — Akbar’s friend and newly paroled petty thief — along with Akbar's sister Firoozeh (played by Taraneh Alidoosti, in the first of her three collaborations with director Farhadi) set out to convince the victim's bereaved father to forgive Akbar, which could potentially reduce his sentence from death to life in prison. Navigating the complexities of Iran's judicial system together, the two form a close bond in their desperate attempts to seek clemency before it is too late. A “well-acted [and] compelling human drama," (The Hollywood Reporter), Beautiful City is now presented in a new 2K restoration approved by the director.

"In high contrast to the spiritual questions asked by Beautiful City, the film shows how we often treat human life as transactional, as multiple parties attempt to collect blood money, for revenge or salvation. On top of these spiritual and ethical aspects, there’s also a love story woven into Beautiful City, a story about how we do irrational, sometimes harmful, things to hold on to the people we love...A story of forgiveness, revenge, and salvation, Beautiful City thoughtfully peels back the layers of each character’s motivations, only to pierce through to the most honest and irrational motivation of them all: love. Highly Recommended, Editor's Choice." - Video Librarian