Around the middle of watching The Old Boy, when I noticed the references, the layered storytelling, and everything else, I thought to myself: Man, the rest of this writer's films must be worth watching too-I need to get more familiar with his mindset. That's when I looked up Oktay Baraheni and added all his feature films to my watchlist.
Latian is largely part of the wave of films influenced by Asghar Farhadi's About Elly. And if we want to be a bit strict, we could even say that Latian is kind of an incomplete copy of About Elly!
But just like I mentioned about Dance with Me, World, I really enjoy films that deal with human relationships, showing intimacy, the breaking and forming of friendships, and highlighting people's contradictions between words and actions. That's why I enjoyed watching Latian as well.
On top of that, I think the film's script (good, but not great) and its excellent ending give it enough value to be worth watching once.
P. S. To make your viewing experience more engaging, pay close attention to Taha's decisions throughout the film (especially in the fight scene) and notice how similar his final choice at the end is to his very first one.
As I said, I liked this film because of its subject matter (which is one of my favorites), the strong performances by Amir Jadidi and Mohammad Majouni, the charming presence of Parinaz Izadyar and Setareh Pesyani, and the cool ending. I'd rate it a 6 out of 10 (while its IMDb rating is 4.8/10), and I'd recommend you give it a watch too.
