A story about men whose names start with the letter A and who set out on a journey, but who do not necessarily return from it. Old Amir sets out to see his friend and to present something to him – and he disappears. His daughter Marjan asks her estranged husband Aman to look for her father. In turn, Aman asks his old friend Atta to help him in his search. Gradually the question arises as to what Amir wanted to give to his old friend. And what else is there in Abadan?
Mani Haghighi’s debut feature is a peculiar mix of surreal comedy and complicated psychological urban melodrama. One could say that, in this film, Haghighi’s two narrative core impulses wrestle with each other, but nobody wins. Why should they? They overlap in a certain existential – if not to say existentialist – sense of unease regarding the present time in Iran and especially regarding Iran’s middle class, which is much more enlightened than it officially should be. As Haghighi didn’t obtain a permit from the authorities for Abadan in advance, he got confronted with the usual trouble. That didn’t bother Haghighi too much.
