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Man Push Cart, by Iranian writer/director Ramin Bahrani, is the latest festival flick to receive a theatrical release. A modern day retelling of the Sisyphus myth - in which a man spends his days heaving a large rock uphill, only to watch it roll back down the slope every time - Ahmad (Ahmad Razvi) is our ill-fated cart-pusher, who succeeds only in having a thoroughly miserable time of it in the Big Apple.

Ahmad is an understandably pitiful character: struggling to come to terms with his wife's death and subsequent rejection by the in-laws. But despite the efforts of his few friends, a (complete) banker called Mohammed who recognises him as a former pop singer from Lahore, and a cute Spanish girl who runs a news stand, life is literally one big drag as he pulls his bagel and coffee cart around midtown Manhattan in the early hours of each morning.

"ONE DIMENSIONAL AND POORLY ACTED"

By focusing on an easily identifiable, but often overlooked member of the NYC workforce, Man Push Cart could have been an interesting observation of the Asian immigrant community in a post-9/11, War On Terror-obsessed country. Unfortunately, the characters are so tediously one dimensional, poorly scripted and amateurishly acted, that the most sympathetic character is a neglected kitten. Indeed for a former rock star, Ahmed has so little X-factor, he wouldn鈥檛 trouble Simon Cowell for a second. Even the cinematography fails to capture much more than passing traffic. There are less depressing ways to spend 87 minutes.

In Urdu with English subtitles.