80
Solidly made and sometimes quite moving chronicle of a working-class family in Tehran.
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What are critics saying?
80
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
The real protagonist is the family itself -- a fragile, complex organism undermined by internal conflict and menaced by the cruelty and indifference of the society around them.
75
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
This gritty drama doesn't rank with the greatest Iranian films, but its urban characters offer an interesting change from the nation's best-known productions, which generally center on rural subjects.
75
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
Watching Tuba's proud girls disappear into anonymous clouds of chadors says more than any political diatribe could, and Bani-Etemad is wise enough to know it.
80
Under the Skin is distinguished, like so much contemporary Iranian cinema, by the way its striking visuals and strategic use of sound tell the underlying story.
70
At times, Bani Etemad succeeds only too well at capturing the confusing rush of Adineh's family life--the film presents more subplots than it can follow thoroughly, until its final act snaps all that's come before into sharp focus.
70
While far from her best work, this accessible, emotionally involving domestic drama nevertheless serves as a welcome introduction.
90
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
This splendid film is no mere polemic, for Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, often called the first lady of Iranian cinema, is above all an accomplished storyteller and dramatist who understands the evocative power of sound and image.
80
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Bani-Etemad's generational melodrama observes a blue-collar dynastic collapse worthy of Lillian Hellman, but stays steadfastly fixed on the quotidian of Tehran life.
88
More a bleak docu-melodrama than an esoteric morality play.