The Exam

'The Exam' is about Rojin, a young Kurdish-Iraqi woman about to take the university entrance exam. Rojin's unhappily married older sister Shilan decides to help her pass at any cost, hoping to give her a more emancipated life. Thus, the sisters inevitably become entangled in a huge network of corruption that connects all parts of society. Man, this was intense and devastating to watch. You know the tension is high when cheating becomes a "Mission Impossible" scenario involving a blue tooth earpiece with wiring tuck underneath the clothes, so the answers can be told to them. There are no happy endings, sadly not in this world. The film making isn't anything visually special, but I feel it didn't need to be for a story like this. Also, great acting throughout. My only issue with the movie is that it ends suddenly and the indeed gut punch impact didn't quite hit me. I think an extra 10-20 minutes might have helped the movie, in terms of fleshing out certain character development and scenes. Other than that, this was solid.