Actress Leila bursts into laughter on camera during the filming of a dramatic scene. Her improper behavior is a reaction to the recent death of her husband Koshrow, who accidentally fell down a flight of stairs. And it is Koshrow who serves as the film’s somewhat unreliable narrator, appearing in the movie even after his death. The couple’s complicated yet loving relationship unfolds as a delicately ironic detective story inside the elusive and, at the same time, obsessively arranged space- time of memory. Nevertheless, it reveals Koshrow’s secret life crisis and delves deep into the past, to an ancient house in the mountains.
The Last Step is Ali Mosaffa's second feature film, following Portrait of a Lady Far Away (2005), featuring Leila Hatami, Ali Mosaffa, and Alireza Aghakhani. The screenplay was partly inspired by Leo Tolstoy's 1886 novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich and James Joyce's short story "The Dead". The film is considered one of the few independently produced features within Iranian cinema and gathered worldwide success after its world premiere at the 47th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in July, 2012.
