HAD it not been for the Ledbury Poetry Festival, I would probably never have seen this film.

But it was an opportunity that I felt I'd done well to take, albeit if I was left just a little unsatisfied as the credits rolled.

Senses perhaps dulled by the formulaic Hollywood pap we're constantly served up, I failed to be moved by a disappointing ending and the bizarre directorial technique of repeated off-camera action.

The latter is said to reinforce the film's essential theme - the inherent beauty of the mundane - which isn't quite as bad as it sounds.

Director Abbas Kiarostami, from Tehran, is after all a past Palm d'or winner at Cannes and can count Quentin Tarantino among his fans.

What did stand out was the effective way real life is portrayed and it was an educational pleasure watching how villagers live their lives, hopefully unexaggerated for the purposes of celluloid, in rural Iran.

The lead part of 'The Engineer', who has taken a group of men (he talks to them frequently but you never see them) to the village on an undercover mission, is well played.

As he and his colleagues take an interest in the health of the elderly Malek (again unseen) - they are waiting to perform some sort of ceremony - the Engineer becomes embroiled in village life.

He builds a friendly relationship with Malek's grandson, Farzed, even turning up at school to help when he gets stuck on an exam question.

There is humour as the Engineer seeks higher ground for his secret mobile phone calls, repeatedly jumping in his truck and heading to a hilltop cemetery, shouting 'hello' down the phone as he goes.

He finishes his conversation and chats each time with a cemetery worker who, again unseen, provides a pivotal moment in the film.

When he gets buried in soil it reveals just how much the visitor has become a part of the village community as the Engineer jumps into action to get help.

Sometimes the film's plot gives way to image and symbolism. In one cemetery scene the camera lingers on a tortoise that the Engineer cruelly kicks over on to its shell. He drives away only for the tortoise to right itself. Answers on a postcard please.

Although plenty to see there are perhaps too many characters that you don't see and an ending - I shan't reveal it should Channel 4 ever start a Persian season - that, although obviously meaningful, somehow just petered out.

I'd really like another look, if only to get a better steer on proceedings.

CARL STRINGER