The Pot and the Oak

Iranian filmmaker Kiarash Anvari's own doubts and fears formed the inspiration for this taut, ironically stylised tragicomedy with a philosophical bent about a playwright in crisis. He is not only wrestling with the ending of a play based on his own slowly dying marriage to an theatre actress, but also with the results of a test he has undergone without his wife's knowledge: he is infertile! His injured pride and unreasonable outbursts are not helping any. With a fine sense of the absurd, the play and its author's life become increasingly intertwined in The Pot and the Oak. Things come to a head when, as if all this wasn't enough, an old flame of his wife's turns up – a director who offers her a role. Driven by jealousy, the tormented writer resolves to ensure that the denouement goes according to his wishes. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)