Seize the sigh

Poulet aux prunes (Chicken with plums)

Crit

The eight willfully dying days of Nasser-Ali Khan, Iran's greatest violinist, and the backstory that tells us why. A magnificent Persian fable of lost love--beautiful to look at, heartbreaking to take in. Written and directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, based on Satrapi's graphic novel, with a multinational cast of my favorites, all playing Iranians: the Frenchman Mathieu Amalric as Nasser-Ali, the Portuguese Maria de Medeiros as his wife, whose love for him is unrequited, the Swedish-Italian Isabella Rossellini as his mother, and the Moroccan Jamel Debbouze in two small but critical roles: a merchant of miscellany who provides Nasser-Ali a Stradivarius and some opium and, much later, a dervish who stands over his mother's grave. One actual (extraordinarily beautiful) Iranian in a key role: Golshifteh Farahani as Irâne, the love of Nasser-Ali's youth, whose loss is the price of his greatness.