If You Could Be Mine

Being a teenage girl is tough enough, but when you live in Iran and you're gay—in a country where homosexuality is not just considered sinful but illegal—life seems almost impossible. Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend Nasrin since she was six years old. They've been subsisting on secret romantic encounters and impossible promises, but now that Nasrin is 18, her mother insists that she marry. After the upcoming nuptials, the girls will lose any chance for their relationship to continue. The loss of Nasrin's love is more than Sahar can handle, and she begins searching for extreme ways to make their relationship possible. Listeners will gain insight into life as a gay young woman in an unaccepting world, and Sahar's desperation to be with the one she loves is a story with which all can empathize. Negin Farsad's inconsistency in character voices makes dialog among characters difficult to follow at times, but the overall story is not lost.