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Two cute kids plus an equally cute pooch: if this were Hollywood, the results would be sugary enough to induce diabetic shock. But not in Iranian director Marziyeh Meshkini's film. Stray Dogs is the sad, compelling and sometimes bleakly funny tale of two infant siblings desperate to be reunited with their parents in post-Taliban Kabul. Only problem is, said adults are in jail. The only solution brother and sister can see is to pinch, pilfer and poach their way to a prison sentence...

As for the mutt, he enters the picture when a nameless boy (played by Zahed) and his younger sister (Gol-Ghotai) rescue him from a gang of street kids wielding fiery torches. The three strays head off to spend the night at the womens' prison where the siblings' mother is being held for adultery - a crime that dad, who was cuckolded while away fighting for the Taliban, considers unforgivable.

"HEARTFELT AND HEARTRENDING"

Unfolding documentary-like, the remainder of the story follows the boy and girl as they haplessly scavenge their way around a city whose harsh beauty is highlighted by the spare elegance of Meshkini's direction. She also coaxes fine performances from her non-professional cast - principally Gol-Ghotai, who could teach Hollywood's stage-schooled brats a thing or two about unforced expressiveness. A turning point comes when the kids catch an instructive screening of 1948 classic Bicycle Thieves. Contrived? A little; but it's also a respectful doff of the cap to Italian neo-realism, whose customary compassion for the dispossessed this heartfelt, heartrending film upholds with aplomb.

In Persian with English subtitles.