Episode 2

To win Sara’s love, Dara now faces an unsuspected rival and a dangerous neighbour.

In order for his book to receive a publishing permit, the writer must convince Mr Petrovich, the all-powerful censor at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, that it will not provoke sin in the mind of the reader.

His characters, Sara and Dara, meet at a riot and are obliged to hide their encounters from both their families and the regime’s Campaign Against Social Corruption, the feared citizen-guardians of Islamic morality. Gender separation is rigorously enforced and illicit passion punished so the lovers exercise their creativity to meet in secret amid the bustling streets of Tehran, in an empty cinema and a hospital A&E unit. Discovery would mean imprisonment, or even death.

Yet writing freely of their encounters puts the writer in as much peril as his own fictional lovers in this Farsi "Fahrenheit 451".

Shahriar Mandanipour's contemporary drama from Iran. A writer must cheat the censor to publish his love story.

Petrovich ….. Philip Arditti
Sara ….. Isabella Nefar
Dara ….. Amir El-Masry
Mother Sara ….. Nathalie Armin
Father Sara ….. Nabil Elouahabi
Mr Sinbad & Brother Atta …..Pezh Mann
Jafar and Father Dara ….. Raad Rawi
Mother Dara ….. Mia Soteriou

Other roles were played by the cast.

Dramatised by Hattie Naylor from the translation by Sara Khalili

Executive Producer: Sara Davies
Sound Design by James Morgan and Steve Bond
Music by Gorkem Sen
Director: Nicolas Jackson

An Afonica production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in August 2018.