Teenage swimmer Omid - meaning "Hope" in Farsi - heads to the North of Iran alongside his single mother to pursue his dream of competing in a prestigious swimming competition. However, the main battle seems to be set outside the water, where Omid has to defeat the malicious community around him that tries to thwart his plans.

Coming to Reelworld from this year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Grand Prix, Summer with Hope is the second installment of a planned trilogy by award-winning filmmaker Sadaf Foroughi whose 2017 feature debut, Ava, promised the emergence of an innovative voice in film. In Summer with Hope, she masterfully paints a spiteful conservative society on a widescreen canvas, where friendship comes with a heavy price, and youth freedom is taken hostage by the personal desires of those who consider themselves above the law.