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Sentenced to death, a young woman seeks atonement on live television in writer-director Massoud Bakhshi’s “Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness.” The riveting and superbly acted Iranian drama, based on a real variety show, poses a moral crucible born out of a theocratic system that disfavors women amid the heightened tension of the on-camera spectacle.
On Yalda Night, a Persian winter solstice celebration, Maryam (Sadaf Asgari) leaves prison to attend the late evening program “Joy of Forgiveness” to ask the adult daughter of the man she accidentally killed her own much older husband to spare her life. With frenetic energy, cinematographer Julian Atanassov’s camera tracks the behind-the-scenes chaos as producer Mr. Ayat (Babak Karimi, known for Asghar Farhadi’s “The Salesman”) wrangles musical acts and famous guests before the surreal main event: preventing a hanging.