It's Winter was in Official Competition at this year's Berlin Film Festival.

Khatoun and her daughter are abandoned when her husband searches for work elsewhere. Months pass. His family doesn't receive a single sign of life from him. No phone calls. No letters. Autumn arrives. Meanwhile, young mechanic Marhab falls for Khatoun and starts to woo her, though soon the stresses of holding a lowly job take a toll on their quiet romance.

Featuring striking glimpses of the workshops and sweatshops of modern Iran, It's Winter is a revealing view of a side of Iran rarely seen. Their lives are bitterly hard, a fact which the film doesn't shy away from, but neither does it neglect to tell a moving, essential story of love and circumstance. Like a work of miniaturism revealing a bigger truth, the personal drama of It's Winter eloquently represents the struggle for survival of a generation that have dreams for a better life than their native land is providing.

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D/S Rafi Pitts P Mohammed Mahdi Dadgoo WS Celluloid Dreams L Farsi w/English subtitles TD 35mm/2005/86mins

Rafi Pitts was born in Mashad, Iran in 1967. His films include The Fifth Season (1997), Sanam (1999) and Abel Ferrara: Not Guilty (2003).