A minibus carries seven passengers through Iran’s remote countryside in the dead of night. When one traveler unexpectedly dies, the party is left with a fresh corpse and no hope of assistance. A shocking discovery is made while searching the body, testing the resolve of the group even further.

Merging the propulsive tension of a thriller with the ethical quandaries of the morality play, Ali Zarnegar’s gripping debut paves the stark expanses of the Lut Desert with even starker choices. This taut and deftly political film joins Iranian cinema’s prized canon of richly symbolic road movies.