Narrative complexity is the key feature of Ali Mosaffa’s ‘The Last Step’. The plot unravels on numerous levels, each entwined into the other in a mysterious and indispensable way. Infidelity, suspicion and epiphany surface when each story gets unravelled keeping a suspense untold. While watching the movie, it would feel as if the many stories come to an abrupt stop disrupting their smooth flow. Yet they continue.
A dead architect, Khosrow, is the narrator, who speaks on his not-so-successful family life. He shares his observations and understanding about his wife Leili, an actress. On another plane, Leili speaks about herself, her life before marriage. She wins the first few innings and is able to make her husband believe the fabricated story in which she introduces her teenage love, a 17 year-old boy who died for her. But this story is her way to hide the illicit relationship she maintains with a medic, Doctor Amin, the real ‘dead’ teenage love of her story.
When another thread is bared, it reveals the character of Dr Amin, who wishes he could get rid of Khosrow to win Leili. The doctor says that the husband is seriously affected with cancer as a means to reach his goal. The husband revisits the wife’s childhood and comes to know about her past and her intentions and gives her an answer through his death.
The film also throws before the viewer an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the beautiful outdoors and eyesome scenery of Iran.
The film has adapted Leo Tolstoy’s novella ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ and James Joyce’s ‘The Dead’.
The character of Khosrow is played by the director Ali Mosaffa himself and Leili is his actress wife Leila Hatami. Alireza Aghakhani has played the role of Dr Amin.