AllMovie

Persian director Kiumars Poorahmad's minimalist, black-and-white war drama Night Bus travels back to the Iran-Iraq conflict of the mid-1980s, when three Iranian soldiers are forced to transport 38 Iraqi prisoners-of-war to their home base in a half-dilapidated bus. The obstinate and slightly irascible driver (Khosro Shakibai) must pilot the vehicle through a dangerous lay of land, packed with mortar shells and explosive mines. Throughout the picture, Poorahmad repeatedly underscores the insanity of any such conflict that not only drove perfect strangers and innocents head-to-head with one another, but that brought the troops, collectively, within arm's reach of death - simply because of ayatollah-driven fanaticism that existed beyond the control of laymen. Mehrdad Seddiqian, Elnaz Shakerdoust, Mohammad-Reza Forutan and Khosro Shakibai co-star; Poorahmad co-authored the script with Hasan Shekari and Habib Ahmadzadeh.