I really wanted to like this movie, especially after seeing an interview with the exceptionally bright 'director'. But sadly I have to say that I have never felt so blatantly manipulated by a movie. The mixture of reality and forced acting was embarrassing, the entire experience was contrived and frankly very poor. If this movie had been made in the UK or Holland or the US it would have been seen for what it is: a lame, lazy and dishonest piece of film-making. I wonder how much responsibility for this movie really lies on the director, since her father is such an influential figure in Iranian cinema. She is clearly very intelligent and committed, and I am sure she was touched by the girls experience, however she managed to create a really uneasy mix of reality and contrived set ups, which in my opinion set very uncomfortably together and created an extremely stale feel to the whole film. This Apple (I don't even want to get into discussing the pathetic symbolism of the fruit!!) has left a really bad taste in my mouth.
