The downside is that Fariba must now live her life as a man until she's no longer under the watchful eyes of the German authorities. The deception goes unnoticed and "Siamak" is granted temporary residence until the legitimacy of "his" request for asylum can be determined. She then cuts her hair, dons his glasses and assumes his identity. The fact that she originally lied about being a political refugee has cast a pall of suspicion over Fariba, and she's about to be deported back to Iran when a sudden tragedy presents itself as a desperate opportunity: Siamak (Navid Akhavan), a fellow refugee, commits suicide, and when Fariba finds his as-yet undiscovered body in his bunk at the detention center, she hides it in his large suitcase. It's then that the truth about her flight from Iran comes out: Fariba had been caught in a relationship with another woman, a transgression that's punishable by death in "modern" fundamentalist Iran. Her papers are obviously forged, and even though she claims to have left Iran to escape political persecution, her petition for asylum must be approved at a hearing. Fariba's liberation, however, is short lived, for she's arrested the minute she tries to pass through customs at Germany's Frankfurt airport.
Fariba won't be needing her veils or head-covers ever again: She's leaving Iran for good.
The minute her Teheran-to-Frankfurt flight leaves Iranian airspace, 29-year-old translator Fariba Tabrizi (Jasmin Tabatabai) finds another purpose for the black headscarf she's required to wear at home: She uses it to plug up the bathroom smoke detector, then lights up a highly forbidden cigarette. Shot in a raw, semi-documentary style, filmmaker Angelina Maccrone's powerful drama is an emotional exploration of one woman's flight from persecution into something a bit more ambiguous, but nonetheless threatening.
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