DRESSAGE

"Allegorical and unsettling, Dressage might be viewed as an updated Crime and Punishment in which a 16-year-old girl commits a crime, gets away with it, but then finds she’s lost her moral bearings in the self-centred, materialistic world of her parents and friends." – Hollywood Reporter

Motivated by nothing more than teenage boredom, a group of rich kids rob a grocery store. Upon realising that they left the security footage behind, they pressure the one poorer member of their gang, Golsa, to retrieve it. She complies but resists demands to hand it over, instead hiding it in the stable where she works. However, Golsa soon realises she has no one to turn to, not even her parents, as privilege and class divisions come to the fore.

Winner of a special mention in the Berlinale’s Generations 14plus section and Best First Film at Iran’s Fajr International Film Festival, Dressage is a brooding debut from director Pooya Badkoobeh, with generous cinematography by Ashkan Ashkani (A Man of Integrity, MIFF 2017) and a wonderful performance by newcomer Negar Moghaddam as Golsa.

"An ethical tale for a new era, Dressage [is] a provocative look at power, money, hypocrisy, and the gap between generations that feels inspired by the work of director Mohammad Rasoulof." – Variety