A gabbeh—an intricately-designed folkloric carpet picturing a man and a woman riding away on horseback—is the prized possession of a nomadic elderly couple. When they sit to wash it on the bank of a creek, it begins recounting the story of the courtship of a young woman by a stranger from the clan.

Circling around a marriage plot in which a father fabricates obstacles to defer his daughter’s desires, Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s acclaimed film aches with feminine longing. Woven into vibrant rugs and sung across fields of wildflowers, said desire transforms into a majestic celebration of color.