Mehrjui is one of three Iranian directors who spearheaded Iranian cinema. This New Wave cinema icon is an intellectual director whose films are often inspired by literature. Sara, one of several female-character films of the nineties, offers an Iranian version of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, with modern-day Teheran wife Sara in the role of Nora, Hessam playing the Torvald character working in a bank, and her friend Sima playing the Iranian equivalent of Mrs. Linde. Sima's past lover (Goshtasb, the Iranian equivalent of Nils Krogstad) is the man Sara gets a shady loan from when her husband requires an expensive emergency operation abroad. Playing her role as the perfect young submissive housewife, Sara labors secretly for the next three years, embroidering wedding gowns to pay the loan and save Hessam's manly pride, until the truth is revealed and, with it, the reality of her marriage. Sara watches her world fall to dust but then awakens to her own rights. Awards/Festivals: Crystal Simorgh for Best Screenplay Fajr Film Festival 1993; Audience Award Nantes Three Continents Festival 1993; Golden Seashell & Silver Seashell for Best Actress San Sebastián International Film Festival 1993; Toronto International Film Festival.