Maziar Miri’s The Painting Pool follows the modest, ordinary days of Maryam and Reza, a couple raising their son Soheil, who has an intellectual disability. The strength that binds the family is tested by social prejudice and institutional barriers, and as the boy gradually becomes aware of “other parents,” fissures quietly emerge. Miri resists tears or exaggeration, instead illuminating dignity, solidarity, and the cruelty of social indifference through a calm gaze at the details of daily life. Shahab Hosseini—who won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 for The Salesman—and Negar Javaherian deliver performances that balance warmth, humor, and affection with profound human solitude, leaving a lasting resonance with the audience. The film offers a transparent reflection of Iranian reality, urging us to reconsider what we call “normal.”