Movieo
Poster for Under the Skin of the City

Under the Skin of the City

2001 · 1h 32m · N/A Drama
Directed by Rakhshan Banietemad

Seen it?

Overview

Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family, which includes: a pregnant daughter whose husband beats her regularly; a teenage son, who's been getting into trouble due to his burgeoning career in radical politics; and an older son who goes to great lengths--such as attempting to sell the family's meager house--in order to get an engineering job in Japan as a means of getting out of Iran.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
87%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Sometimes fuzzy in structure, the movie is also uncompromisingly realistic, taking us into Tehran offices and factories and onto construction sites.

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press
Fresh

Bani-Etemad's womanist bent is stark and bracing.

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
Fresh

Ms. Bani-Etemad seems to have a firm hand on the social pulse on her nation, particularly the slowly changing roles of women in a place where change is eyed with both desire and suspicion.

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News
Fresh

The movie might lack the artistic accomplishment of better-known Iranian movies, but it tempers its melodrama with unflinching willingness to take us inside lives that otherwise would remain remote to us.

Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News
Fresh

This splendid film is no mere polemic, for Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, often called the first lady of Iranian cinema, is above all an accomplished storyteller and dramatist who understands the evocative power of sound and image.

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times

Comments

Talk about the film with other members

More films