Disappearance

An Iranian film
SGIFF 2017

A young couple have intercourse before marriage and the young girl starts bleeding non-stop due to a cut in her vagina. The scene begins with her going to the hospital saying she's been raped by a taxi driver. Nurse calls her to call her family member and she claims only her brother is home. Turns out that's her bf. The doctor suspects she was not raped and she sneaks off. Another hospital and this time they go in as newly-weds. They demand to see their marriage certificate. The nurse advises them to go private hospital. 25,000 tommes for consultation! Seems like a bit. In the private hospital, the nurse gives her saline IV to boost her low blood pressure. Bf comes clean and say they have yet to marry and she threatens to call the police. She goes to a room presumably to do so. Poor couple. They flee. She's so weak. And he's stuck in the same rut.

Before that in the second hospital, she thought he disappeared. Left her alone to face this problem. Panic attack, sense of insecurity. I feel her. He claims to be at the toilet outside. There's a sense of mistrust. If he leaves his life goes back to normal. If she doesn't get help she'll bleed to death. The responsibility is on the woman even though the problem was supposed to be shared two ways.

They flee the private hospital and seek help from her gf, who is out partying at 4am in this really posh condo/apartment which looks like a hotel. She calls a private doc to no avail. This needs to be solved illegally. Private hospital previously but laws do not bend. They seek help from her friend, who is a third year medical student in their university. This med student bought jab from a drugstore which actually needed prescription. Luckily she got one after flashing her student card. A case of the law vs authority again.

Female protagonist gets a jab in the car to stop the bleeding for at most two hours. Makeshift tourniquet using rubber band. She looks better. After the friends have exhausted their contacts they disband. He waits for the phone call from his doctor contact. No reply. At their wits end, he calls her to call her parents. They quarrel. Her gf calls. The private doctor is available. He charges 3 million for the procedure which was super quick. He gave 700,000 - all that he had in the bank. She gave her tuition fees - 1.5 million. She pawns her HP as guarantee.

After the procedure he asks how's she. Expresses concern. But she's too jaded. Dug a hole for herself with no way to earn her tuition fees. Having to explain this to her parents. She's gone off somewhere else, having lost all hope in life. She doesn't reply and stays quiet in the car. The car breaks down in the middle of the overhead and he stops to get gas. When he came back she had disappeared. He tries to find her to no avail. He walks down the road nearing the bend and with the city waking up I keep thinking he might get banged down by a car.

Disappeared. Who first?

This show has not gotten the permit for screening in Iran. I wonder how they shot the hospital scenes.  It was based on the female scriptwriter's experience. There's solidarity among friends of the younger generation. There's partying and drinking which is frowned upon by the older generation. And consensual sex. In the end they break up just like the Scriptwriter story. Was it because there's no love? Due to societal restrictions which spoiled things?

Due to many restrictions in Iran most things are shot in a vehicle. The car. Where drinking, smoking and intimacy happens. This has become the liberated private space.
Private