The Deserted Station

Intimate and engaging.

It never fails to come as a shock to find how profoundly moving it all is when these gentle films draw to their graceful conclusions.

Compelling underlying oddness may be enough to distinguish Deserted Station from similarly excellent humanistic Iranian fare.

For filmgoers who like dramas that are spare yet evocative, that focus on the subtleties of relationships, and that feature foreign settings completely off the beaten path, Deserted Station will be a masterpiece.

If repetition has stripped Iran's post-revolutionary cinema of some of its modish luster, The Deserted Station is still a valuable addition to a literature whose characteristics are now internationally well-established.

Both intensely thoughtful and wonderful to look at.

The film's relaxed pace, unassuming tone, and respect for its characters all recall the films of Abbas Kiarostami, who provided the story idea, but director Ali Reza Raisian adds a slightly more dramatic and emotional edge.