One of the artists in residence at the House of Makhmalbaf film group, Marziyeh Meshkini is married to director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, and fans will immediately appreciate her walking-pace camera-work and the rough verité of the official house-style.
In common with many Makhmalbaf efforts, Stray Dogs, a harrowing vignette from Afghanistan, documents social inequality through the plight of forgotten children.
When their mother (Rezaie) is locked up for remarrying after her first husband disappears, brother and sister Zahed and Gol-Ghotai are allowed to stay with her at nights. Free to roam the streets of Kabul, they look for a way to join her permanently by attempting to get arrested. Alternatively, they visit their father (jailed as a Taliban) and beg him to forgive his former wife. Inevitably, bad things happen, but the pair cling to each other. Then things get much worse.
Rather audaciously, Meshkini includes footage of The Bicycle Thieves for those too slow to get the reference from the title. But by the end of this unbearably sad tale, she has justified the nod.