‘Woman and Child’ Review: Saeed Roustaee’s Iranian Mother Melodrama Finds a Family Torn Part [A-] Cannes

In spite of Iran’s excessively punitive stifling of artistic expression, its filmmakers continue to knock it out of the park even at the risk of political persecution. This year’s Cannes Film Festival boasts two top-notch offerings from the country’s directors, including Woman and Child, writer-director Saeed Roustaee’s fourth feature and second competition title on the Croisette. His name may be unfamiliar because, despite screening at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art’s New Director/New Films and a host of other festivals, none of his features have received theatrical releases in the U.S. Hopefully, all that is about to change. 

Woman and Child is a taut thriller reminiscent of Asghar Farhadi’s masterpiece A Separation beat by beat. It starts out uneventfully (at least by Western standards), though the characters’ seemingly thoughtless and innocuous choices will quickly spiral out of control and lead to irreversibly dire consequences.  

The film centers on Mahnaz (Parinaz Izadyar), a single mother of two. Neda (Arshida Dorostkar) is the perfect child, while the same can’t be said about her brother, Aliyar (Sinan Mohebi). Aliyar insists that his grandmother (Fereshteh Sadr Orafaee) bribe him to do homework, only to turn around and outsource said assignment to Neda, paying her only 2o percent of what grandma gave. He also quite literally hops from his school over to a different one to gamble with the kids there during recess. He is a problem child and a bully, but mom is too busy being in love to get involved. Even when teacher Samkhanian (Maziar Seyedi) suspends Aliyar over various transgressions, Mahnaz just makes up excuses for him. 

Smooth-talking paramedic Hamid (A Separation’s Payman Maadi) is intent on marrying Mahnaz, and she readily surrenders to his charms. She has to house his parents from Tehran, who are in town for the formalities. The dating couple want to keep the kids a secret for now for obvious cultural reasons, so she stashes all their stuff out of sight and sends them off to stay with their paternal grandfather (Hassan Pourshirazi) temporarily.  

This is where things begin to go very wrong. Upon meeting Mahnaz’s sister, Mehri (Soha Niasti), for the first time, Hamid has a sudden change of heart. Mahnaz is of course adamantly against the two dating; though she claims to be looking out for her sister, it’s clear as day she’s bitter. To make matters even worse, the family experiences a horrific tragedy which we won’t spoil here.  

Sure, there’s blame all around and some are better at avoiding it than others. Instead of self reflecting and taking some accountability, Mahnaz goes nuclear on everyone tangentially involved. Just as an example, she starts a petition against Hamid to ensure that no hospital will ever work with him again. 

Similar to A Separation, the setup is ordinary; so it’s extraordinary that Woman and Child is able to take the audience on such an emotional rollercoaster ride from such a simple, plausible premise. Roustaee’s script remains believable even when the plot becomes increasingly unhinged. Bahram Dehghani adroitly keeps the pace unrelenting.  

The morals and politics of Woman and Child are quite conservative, and the film often comes off as a cautionary tale on the consequences of not adhering to Islamic principles. Given that Roustayi previously received a 6-month prison sentence over his 2022 Cannes entry, Leila’s Brothers, his hands are obviously tied.  

Though as viewers we naturally gravitate toward the protagonist, Mahnaz’s apparent narcissism and toxic scorched-earth revenge path do give us second thoughts on whether her obsessive behaviors are indeed proportional to her pain and anguish. Izadyar does a remarkable job engaging the audience even when Mahnaz’s madness becomes full-on. After Mahnaz’s multiple murder attempts, Izadyar somehow manages to turn a potentially deadly scenario into a tearful happy climax, which is no small feat. With luck we’ll soon get to see more of Roustaee’s works both old and new.

Grade: A-

This review is from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival where Woman and Child premiered In Competition.