Written and directed by Iranian-born Babak Payami, Silence Between Two Thoughts is an oblique and austere parable of oppression and fanaticism. Set in a drought-ridden and impoverished village near the Iran/Afghanistan border, the film tells of an executioner (Kamal Narouli) who is ordered to spare a condemned young woman (Maryam Moqadam), whose crime remains unclear. The local Haji insists, however, that the man marry and deflower his intended victim before carrying out her killing as, according to teachings, "an executed virgin will go to heaven."

Payami was actually arrested by government agents in Iran, who confiscated the negatives of this film - the version being released in the United Kingdom has been assembled by the director from a digital video copy he managed to smuggle out of the country. Presumably what upset the authorities was the way Payami explores the destructive influence of fundamentalism, practised by the likes of the Haji upon the lives of ordinary people, and how it is women who are particularly oppressed by such belief systems.

The zealous executioner insists to his more moderate stepfather that "the Haji saved this land. I'm devoted to his cause." Yet the instruction to wed, sleep with, and kill the virgin triggers doubts in his mind. The film's mysterious title, in Payami's words, refers to "the moment when an individual or even a whole society wakes up from the nightmare of blind conviction".

"TOO SELF-CONSCIOUSLY DELIBERATE"

Silence Between Two Thoughts doesn't sufficiently build on its intriguing premise. Missing are the absurdist moments of humour that distinguished Payami's previous work Secret Ballot. The filmmaker seems too self-consciously deliberate in his almost wordless approach to the material. You might admire the long, precise takes of cinematographer Farzad Jodat and the careful use of off-screen space, yet we're left emotionally detached from the experiences of his characters.

In Farsi with English subtitles.