Beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema.
Filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf was an anti-Shah radical during his teenage years before the Islamic Revolution, landing in jail after an incident with a police officer that left both wounded. Two decades later, Makhmalbaf re-creates this incident on screen with the with the help of the same officer.
Shaping the Iranian cinema of the 90s—alongside Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi—Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s greatest film is a profound and emotional work of hybrid filmmaking. Recreating his own violent encounter with police, this meta-narrative is a political and personal work of reflection.