Iranian cinema is full of mismatched friendships—Odd Couple-like characters bound together by circumstance, convenience, or the need to make a living. In Loose Rope, the unlikely duo is motor-mouthed Asgar and taciturn Mikhail, who work together hauling sheep and cows to an animal market in working-class southern Tehran, where the beasts meet their unceremonious end. When driver Mikhail gets a call from their boss ordering them to travel across town with a cow in the back of their battered Chevy, they set off for the affluent suburbs, a world away from the dusty market square that is their home turf. Along the way they encounter smiling girls, overly officious traffic cops, and spectators armed with cell phones eager to capture the sight of a cow being ferried through the traffic-clogged streets of northern Tehran. In the Cleveland International Film Festival's catalogue Loose Rope was called "a beautiful and often funny parable about the ties that bind us all." Mehrshad Karkhani directed.

(2008, 82 minutes.)
In Persian with subtitles.

Generous support of the High's international film series is provided by the Woodruff Arts Center Celebrates Diversity Initiative through the generous support of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.