A Nearby Country Called Love

Abdoh (Out of Mesopotamia) offers a moving and nuanced study of gender and sexuality in contemporary Iran. Issa has reluctantly returned to Tehran from New York City (“sometimes there simply was no story of triumphing elsewhere in the world”). Back home, his longtime friend Nasser wants him to help take revenge on an unnamed widower whose wife set herself on fire after years of abuse. En route to visit the widower, Issa remembers the persecution that Hashem, his late queer brother, faced in their neighborhood. When they finally confront the widower, Issa is struck by the “futile maleness of it all.” The plot, such as it is, follows Issa as he reckons with the various contradictions of religious law and codes of patriarchal honor. One episode involves Mehran, an old friend of Hashem’s who’s now in a relationship with Nasser. When Nasser tells Issa he plans to force Mehran into gender reassignment surgery so their relationship can be legal, Issa is disgusted. Out of this sad, low-key chronicle, Abdoh brings life to Issa’s longing, which is fueled by memories of his brother (“Don’t forget this is the land of One Thousand and One Nights, Issa. Anything is possible,” Hashem once told him). It’s an artful rendering of hope amid despair. Agent: Jessica Papin, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Nov.)