M for Mother (Mim mesle madar)

Veteran filmmaker Rasoul Mollgholipour closed out a career spanning three decades with this drama, his final project before a heart attack claimed in life in the spring of 2007. Sepideh (Golshifteh Farahani) gave up her dreams of becoming a professional musician so she could marry the man she loved, Soheil (Hossein Yari), a low-level figure in the Iranian government.

Sepideh and Soheil want to have a baby, but during her pregnancy, Sepideh was exposed to chemical weapons used in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war. As a result, their son Saeed (Mohammad Ali Shadman) is born with severe birth defects; Soheil cannot accept the child, and he abandons his family, forcing Sepideh to support herself and their son on her own.

Mim Mesl-e Madar (aka M For Mother) was Iran's official submission in the category of Best Foreign Language Film at the 2008 Academy Awards.