While a teacher writes on the blackboard, a disruptive noise breaks the silence—but the culprit won’t confess. Two versions of what follows unfold: in one, a student gives up the troublemaker; in the other, a silent pact binds seven classmates who refuse to betray one another.

When a harmless case of classroom misconduct occurs, Abbas Kiarostami imagines two scenarios that might follow: snitching in one case, and a show of solidarity in the other. As adults reflect on this little event, their words resonate profoundly with the fractious atmosphere of revolutionary Iran.