AT THE END OF THE DAY

 

 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Babak Bahrambeygi

Directed by: Babak Bahrambeygi

 writers:  Babak Bahrambeygi, khosro Monsefshokri

D.o.p:  Reza Teimouri

Edit: Babak Bahrambeygi

Composer: Maseod Sekhavatdost

Sound: Ensieh Maleki

Producers: Babak Bahrambeygi, Mehdi Kohian

Technical items:

Duration: 99 min

Language: Persian

English subtitle

Fiction, Drama, Color, 2K, Surround, 2024 / 2^nd film

Casts:

Hanieh Tavasoli, Mahtab Servati, Shayesteh Sajadi, Shabnam Moghadami, Reza behbodi, Khayam Vagar,Hesam Rezaian, …

 

Synopsis

Logline

One day in the life of three young women with different generations. Each of them is in a phase of an emotional relationship and they want to overcome the crisis in their relationship, but the patriarchal habits in the traditional society and the power of government are an obstacle.

Synopsis:

The narrative structure of this screenplay includes three episodes that are narrated in parallel and simultaneously in one day, but in this synapse, for simplicity, the stories of these three episodes are written separately.

Episode one: Ehsan, twenty years old and a student, buy a cheap car from a dealership. He is dating Mitra, his fellow university student.

Mitra plans to return home after a short talk with Ehsan, but Ehsan, who has planned for this date and hopes to establish a relationship with her, insists that this meeting should continue until night.

In a cafe, Mitra explains that her life plan does not allow her to have any kind of relationship and she has no intention of getting married. On the way back, Ehsan exaggerates to impress Mitra about the help he has done for her in the past, and Mitra, who is thinking of filming a secret video of herself without a hijab and can get him help to do this, agrees.

In a small park, Ehsan films Mitra without hijab at sunset.

After that, they are talking when Ehsan asks Mitra again about her life plan. Finally, Mitra states that his goal is to continue studying at a prestigious university outside of Iran.

At night Ehsan is driving Mitra home, suddenly Mitra's father arrives and stops the car and angrily talks to Mitra and informs him that the video in question has been distributed on social media and this will cause bad consequences for Mitra and his family.

later, the father insists on taking his identity documents from Ehsan. Mitra tries to intervene when her father violently puts her in the car and drives her home. Ehsan also follows them.

Ehsan hears their argument from outside the house, recognizes the opportunity, and decides to negotiate with her father to get Mitra. He gets out of the car and rings the doorbell of their house.

Mitra's father comes out to talk to her and Mitra witnesses their conversation from the window. At first, the father angrily talks to Ehsan, but Ehsan calmly tells him about his intention to propose and marry Mitra, and in this way, he gains the father's trust.

Mitra's father, who calmed down a bit after this encounter, asks him questions about his field and his family, and other matters and Ehsan answers everything carefully and assures him that due to the relations of his family with the Government, he will try his best. will pursue this matter legally and find the person responsible for publishing the video. After a short period of time, the father returns Ehsan's identity documents to him.

Episode two: Ahmed is thirty years old and works in a reputable government company in which his mother is a shareholder. He sells his cheap car to Ehsan and buys a car at an average price. Tonight, her marriage ceremony with Shiva is going to be held.

Shiva is preparing for the ceremony at the hair salon when Ahmed calls her and informs her that unfortunately, his mother (Ahmad's mother) has learned about Shiva's previous marriage.

Ahmed rushes after Shiva and picks her up and as a solution to this problem, he suggests discussing the issue with his uncle and asking him for help because he is the elder of the family and his mother trust him.

Shiva, however, thinks that instead of doing this, they should go to their mother and tell her the truth so that they don't have to keep telling more lies. Ahmed tells him that tonight is their wedding night and his mother will definitely not accept.

Shiva continues to argue that when they are interested in me, it is they who are the main decision-makers, not Ahmed's mother, but Ahmed believes that now that he has hidden Shiva's previous marriage, they should continue until the end, and Shiva is the main culprit because of his previous marriage, but Shiva does not blame himself in this incident and does not expect such a reaction from Ahmed, and reminds that Ahmed knew about this from the beginning and finally He asked if Ahmed himself would have preferred that he had never had a relationship before and had never married anyone.

Ahmed's answer reveals a new reality of his way of thinking. For him, having a previous relationship with Shiva and his marriage is considered a weakness.

Ahmed leaves Shiva alone in the car to talk to his uncle. According to the conversations that have been exchanged between them, Shiva gets out of the car and walks aimlessly in the streets of the city for a while, but finally comes back with a broken heart.

After Ahmad talks to his uncle, he talks to Shiva privately in his office. He wants to clarify some obscure points from Shiva's previous marriage. Shiva briefly explains that after her previous marriage, she found out that her husband was impotence, by giving away his legal rights. uncle tries to make sure about the details of the story and her virginity before having a relationship with Ahmed by asking more questions like an interrogator. This makes Shiva very upset. And she goes out of his uncle's office and passes by Ahmed without paying attention, and continues on her way and ends this relationship.

Episode three: Middle-aged Ibrahim is an accountant of a company. From the same dealership, he sells his average price car to Ahmed and buys an expensive car. At the same time, Neda goes to a midwife's office to get black market drugs suitable for abortion.

While driving, Ibrahim realizes that with his new car, he can attract the attention of women on the streets of the city, take them for a ride and establish a friendship. After receiving the medicine, Neda goes to the cafe. She is still hesitant to have an abortion. Her friend Afsanah reassures her about this and tells him memories of his own experiences with abortion. He tries to prove that it is the woman who is the main owner and the final decision-maker regarding giving birth to a child.

After finding a seemingly suitable case and fulfilling the initial conditions of a relationship, Ibrahim goes to a famous boulevard in the city. There, expensive cars play music like a show and go back and forth on the boulevard, and the male and female drivers are trying to get in touch with each other, which is the so-called "round-round". Ibrahim tries to behave like them.

At the same time, Neda comes out of the cafe and walks in the streets of the city. After repeatedly going around the boulevard, Ibrahim enters the street where Neda is crossing and stops to give her a ride. Neda rides. At the same moment, the police car arrives and impounds Ibrahim's car for causing trouble and driving strange women. Ibrahim explains that the woman he is riding is his wife. The police officer smiles and explains to him that they have been watching him during this time and they know about his activities in the last few hours, they both take him to the police station to clarify the matter.

Ibrahim and Neda leave the police station after a few hours. They get into the car and travel in silence to reach home. Ibrahim enters the house and Neda follows him. We slowly realize from their behavior at home that they are really husband and wife.

In the end, as if this incident made him determined to do his job, Neda takes the desired pills and lies down on the bed, and stares at the ceiling.

DIRECTOR

Babak Bahrambeygi, editor & director, born in 1978 in Kermanshah, Iran. He made his first film A LONG DAY on 2017. At the End of the day is his 2ndfilm.

 

FESTIVALS

 

 

Director's note

The relationship between women and men has always been one of the most complicated and critical issues for humans throughout history, especially in the present time in Iran when women have become aware of their rights and want to have a share equal to men in their emotional relationships and to play a role in decision making. This demand, however, cannot be fulfilled easily in the societies like Iran that despite their modern looks and the entrance of the western lifestyle, still follow traditional customs and beliefs deep inside.

 AT THE END OF THE DAY is about this conflict: on the one hand, the men in the story, father, suitor, groom, and husband, each try to own and control women, and the women try to stand up to them and gain their independence.

This movie depicts one day in the life of three women. Although they pass by one another a few times in the film, the age difference between the characters and their stories give the impression that the three episodes are different phases in the life of one woman before the marriage, during the wedding, and after the marriage.

In the first episode, the father displays a traditional father who must protect his daughter against harm and hand her over “intact” to the husband. Although the girl has higher goals such as studying and seeking a modern life, it seems that at the end of the story, she can’t resist the pushy suitor and the family pressure. The probable results of her submission are shown in the second episode where the female protagonist must get ready for marriage and it must be proven to the groom’s family that she is “intact”. The plot takes a comic form here. The groom is struggling between the two worlds of tradition and modernity. On the one hand, he has had sexual contact with the bride before their wedding, and on the other hand, he must prove to his family the bride is a virgin. The groom who depends on his family for his job cannot disobey his family’s demand to prove the bride’s virginity and tries to find a way to solve the problem. The woman, who is watching herself being humiliated, gives in to the man’s request in the end. The probable result of her submission is shown in the third episode when a few years have passed after the man and woman’s wedding. The man is looking for some relationships outside his marriage and the woman must decide to keep or abort her baby. In this episode, we witness the results and consequences of the traditional order in the new order. The old order has fallen apart and is not able to keep control anymore. Babies used to be considered a man’s property in the past, but it is now a woman who decides to deliver them or not. Man has lost his control over the woman and although the man and woman are still living together for some traditional considerations, the requirements of living together such as loyalty have been lost completely, and their relationship has taken a tragic form.

STILLS

TRAILER

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dfAJ46vE5548a5o_4Rw59nlbl-Iyg0YO/view?usp=sharing