Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s latest feature tells a somber and heart-wrenching story largely through flashbacks, ellipses, subtle silences and spot-on acting performances: A celebrated movie director has an extra-marital relationship with a young debuting actress who also happens to be his daughter’s former classmate in school. He decides to remarry and leave behind his wife, son and daughter. This not only causes public consternation and condemnation but also threatens to break apart the anguished members of his first family. Only a sudden and unexpected event will pave the way, at least on a spiritual level, for the restoration of familial ties. Farooki’s confident approach carefully steers clear of melodramatic clichés concentrating instead on the set of private and public circumstances which enmesh his characters. As a result, No Bed Of Roses achieves at once local and universal significance. (Davide CAZZARO)