History and truth are often a matter of perspective as can be seen in this deceptively simple and wry Iranian-French comedy that begins as an aging police officer enters the Tehran home of real-life filmmaker
Mohsen Makhmalbaf (who also wrote the screenplay and edited the film). The cop has come to call on an old debt and have Makhmalbaf put him in a film as the director promised many years ago. Inspired by the visit, Makhmalbaf decides to make a film about the events that led to his promise to the cop. The twist is that he will use different film crews and actors to recreate the scene from each of the involved parties' perspectives. He gives the cop his choice of young actors, and with a crew they go to the scene of the original crime. From the cop's point of view the event centered around his love for a pretty young girl he saw while guarding the gate of an important dignitary's residence. One day, he decides to ask her hand and buys a flower to give her. At the moment he does so, he is randomly attacked by young Makhmalbaf who stabbed him while trying to steal his gun. Later the attacker went to prison. Interestingly, the director has an entirely different spin on the event, showing the attack and even the presence of the girl to be carefully planned to assist with a revolutionary cause. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide