BE CALM AND COUNT TO SEVEN

Liberty Theatre, today, 6.30 p.m.

Action film fans, beware: this movie is not for you. Ramtin Lavafipour's directorial debut is a slow-paced, meditative look at the lives of the inhabitants of an isolated fishing village in southern Iran.

Though beautifully shot and exploring original themes, it feels repetitive and plodding in parts – and the story at its heart still remains something of a mystery at the end.

The feature follows the adventures of Motu – a teenager whose fisherman father has failed to return on a smuggling trip, which may or may not have included human cargo.

The boy is involved in the smuggling trade too, but dreams of becoming a famous footballer as he waits in vain for his dad to return. Motu dives for pearls and gets his sister – whom we find out has been abandoned by her husband – involved in hauling the cargo off his boat and getting it to their home without falling foul of the police.

Lavafipour's camera lingers long on these activities and though the footage is initially captivating to watch, it seems to go on endlessly. It definitely creates a strong sense of the sleepy, almost dreamlike state of the villagers in between their stressful dashes from the beach once the smuggling vessels zoom onto the sand.

But I would have preferred to see the plot moving on and more evidence of the relationships between the characters. The director hints at these, particularly the bond between Motu and his silent sister, but only really skims the surface.

A third character – village middleman Mahmoud – could have added a deeper dimension, but his potentially intriguing back-story is never fully realised.

The film offers a kind of peephole view of this middle eastern setting – it whetted my appetite to learn more about the culture and watch other Iranian films, but didn't leave me satisfied.