On the last day, awards were presented to high calibre actors, actresses, directors and others. The Iranian-French joint venture feature film, Cafe Transit was awarded the International Critics Prize. It also, incidentally, won the best film award of the festival. The film, in my opinion, rightly deserved this recognition.

Although Iranian filmdom of recent years is well established, Cafe Transit, was made by a relatively unknown director, Kambozya Partovi, and was not expected to be exceptional. However, as the story began to unfold on the screen in a jampacked but completely silent cinema hall, the apprehension, to my pleasant surprise, proved unfounded.

The protagonist, Reyhan. the recently-widowed wife of a restaurateur of very modest means, faced the unsavoury but customary prospect of moving in with her children to her deceased husband's brother, Nasser, played by Parviz Prasto. He is insistent right through the film that she live with him as a second wife.

However, Reyhan, played by Fershth Sader Orafe, opts to live a life of dignity and independence by revitalising the restaurant left behind by her husband. Naturally, a grim struggle for survival ensues. Her dead husband's loyal assistant in the restaurant, fortunately, pitches in by serving customers. Meanwhile, Reyhan begins her do-or-die struggle for survival with dignity working in the kitchen, assisted by her children. Her exceptional culinary skills soon makes the place a swarming centre of attraction for truckers and commuters from home and abroad as the restaurant is located at a vantage point beside a highway connecting Iran with Turkey and the rest of Europe.

As sales continue to climb, her brother-in-law suitor Nasser's restaurant, by contrast, witnesses a steady decline in business. Subsequently, he redoubles his efforts to woo Reyhan. But Reyhan, once more politely turns down the offer. Director Kambozya Partovi has subtly portrayed the character of the modest and humble, but supremely confident and dignified Reyhan.

The brother-in-law Nasser, although angry with the rebuff, always displays a modicum of respect towards her. However, his impatience boils over and he sends one of his workers to physically assault a regular customer of Reyhan's Cafe Transit, causing a fracture in his leg. This Greek trucker called Zakhario, attracted at first by the quality of cooking in the restaurant, ventured into the kitchen once and saw Reyhan working behind the scene.

He becomes nostalgic and is reminded of his house and his wife, missing for the last five years. He showers the children with gifts and proposes to Reyhan. Although touched by his overtures, Reyhan, refuses his offer. This scene too was mute and dignified.

True, Reyhan was no super woman, as any less talented filmmaker would have portrayed her. She at times, quite realistically, appears exhausted. Nevertheless she carries on her unrelenting struggle to survive and live a life of dignity in an otherwise hostile environment.

The film, however, ends with the Greek driver taking leave, Nasser's offer of marriage steadfastly refused, and, the law of inheritance being what it is, the Cafe Transit being locked by the government, with police standing by. Reyhan, her two minor children and the loyal shop assistant wait outside with nowhere to go to, and nothing whatsoever for them to fall back upon for survival. But Reyhan doesn't surrender to the easy but undignified way of survival. This will continue to remind me of a famous line from Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea where the protagonist mutters that "Man may be destroyed but not defeated". The director - scriptwriter, Kambozya Partovi, editor Zafar Panahi, the cameraman with his often brilliant shots and the actors and actresses have made the film a classic.

The author is a member of jury board, 9th International Film Festival Dhaka.