Gholam

Part-time mechanic by day, minicab driver by night, an ill-at-ease expat Iranian in London is inexorably drawn into violent events in this art house character study. On screen for much of the running time, English-speaking Iranian actor Shahab Hosseini (previously a Cannes best actor winner in Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman) is absolutely mesmerising as the seemingly rootless protagonist gradually realising that no man is an island, when he's courted by exiled Iranian dissidents and also provides a helping hand for an elderly local woman whose son has been killed in dubious circumstances. This first feature film by acclaimed Iranian-British photographer Mitra Tabrizian boasts striking visuals capturing a shadowy backstreet London the tourists never visit, but it does unfold at an extremely deliberate pace, often exposing the film-maker's tin ear for English dialogue. Still, it certainly offers a very distinctive outsider's view of the capital, and Hosseini's ability to command attention while his character is simply mooching through the day is remarkable in itself.