Iranian film-maker Saeed Roustayi ‘s family drama is a story of one woman and 5 misogynistic men. The brothers played by Parviz (Farhad Aslani) who works as a toilet cleaner does not make enough to feed his growing family, Lunk Farhad (Mohammad Ali Mohammadi) who is hooked to US wrestling on TV and Manouchehr (Payman Maadi)who is looking to get rich without effort and  Alireza (Navid Mohammadzadeh)who dumps his factory job are all big talk and no show. Their ageing father, Esmail (Saeed Poursamimi) is a schemer, addicted to opium and wants to. be patriarch of the family which was once his late cousin.

The late cousin’s son Bayram (Mehdi Hosseinina) tells him that he could be the patriarch as long as he pays 40 gold coins as a marriage present at Bayram’s son’s forthcoming wedding.  Esmail agrees but his daughter Leila opposes. him. She is trying to make the family a decent income but is excluded from most meetings being a woman.

Leila’s Brothers was screened at the Cannes film festival.

Leila’s Brothers. Photograph: Amirhossein Shojaei