The Cinematheque

Tehran-born writer-director Oktay Baraheni studied film at York University in Toronto before returning home to pursue his career. His first feature, the social drama Bridge of Sleep, freely adapts Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and transposes it to contemporary Iran. Shahab (Saed Soheili), a young man about to get married, enters a business deal with a friend, hoping it will secure his financial future. When the deal goes sour, Shahab finds himself out of money and on the hook for a high-interest debt. Pursued by creditors, under pressure from his fiancé (Anahita Afshar), and without a legal way out of his woes, he turns to unorthodox methods. Akbar Zanjanpour plays Shabab’s schoolteacher father, while actor and filmmaker Houman Seyyedi also appears.