There are some sports that are just silly. Golf for instance, hitting a small ball around to get it in a hole. Pure nonsense. Or long jump. Really? Jumping as far as you can into a sand pit, a sport? Isn’t that more of a child’s activity?

Another one, which features in this film, is that of professional wrestling. No not the fixed bouts that take place in a ring, where it’s nothing more than panto in Lycra, but ‘professional’ wrestling, that sees grown men cuddle with a bit of throwing in the mix for good measure.

Although it’s not a sport you can take that seriously, director Milad Alami tries his best, using it as a backdrop for his film about immigrants in Sweden.

Due to an incident in his home of Iran, professional wrestler Iman (Payman Maadi), has to leave the country pretty quick, along with his with wife Maryam (Marall Nasiri) and their two daughters, fleeing to the safety of Sweden.

It’s difficult for them to feel settled, being moved from room to room in the hostel they find themselves in, so the whole experience feels far from being a homely one.

When Iman’s former profession gets out – he even competed for his country at the Rio Olympics - it’s implied that he may do his and his family’s case a world of good by trying to join the Swedish wrestling team.

Inman can see the opportunity in front of him, but it opens up old issues, that put them where they are now, in the first place.

Director Alami, born in Iran and raised in Sweden after his family settled there as refugees, is most definitely one to adhere to the adage write what you; his first film (2017’s The Charmer) followed an Iranian immigrant in Denmark, and now this one, his follow-up, an Iranian family in Sweden.

The problem is, there are a number of interesting story threads used here, but none of them lead to anywhere satisfactorily dramatic. And it’s all dragged out fairly painfully over a daunting two hour running time.

The director does well in illustrating the predicament his protagonist finds himself in, but just doesn’t do enough in fleshing it out. You kind of get a hint that he thinks exactly the same thing, with an inclusion of a striking scene, featuring another immigrant, which is used simply to inject some energy into it. He explores his position of head of the family, and his responsibilities towards them, as well as his sexuality, oh and his ability to grapple scantily clad men just for the sake of it. And yet after all that, the audience is still none the wiser as to what’s going on in his head.

And after a long two hours, the film’s ending is disappointingly underwhelming, as well as continuing the rather bleak tome throughout.

It’s an interesting attempt and delivering a unique immigrant story, but let’s face it, it’s difficult to take it too seriously when professional hug-a-man AKA wrestling is involved.