#REVIEW: Desert Dancer

Afshin Ghaffarian (Reece Ritchie), is a self taught dancer from Iran. In modern day Iran, dancing has been banned under its current regime, creating the struggle of fighting to express oneself while under such oppression.

When we first meet Ghaffarian, he is being punished at a young age for dancing in front of his classmates and sent to a secret art school. We soon follow his journey into university where he starts a secret dance group and risks everything for freedom of expression. The movie has layered storylines involving volatile political movements and the rampant problems of substance abuse. Freida Pinto shows up as Ritchie’s love interest with her own secret demons to deal with.

The pair have great chemistry and share a stunning dance number together that is both sad and beautiful to watch. Ritchie does a great job at portraying Ghaffarian’s pain of wanting to be a dancer in his own country, but unable to do so under such a controlling and corrupt government.

eOne Films releases Desert Dancer on Friday, April 17, 2015 exclusively in Toronto

(Photo Courtesy of eOne Films)