Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

One of the strongest Iranian films in years: few films from any country recently have dealt so incisively with the consequences of alienation and social polarisation. The idea for the film originated in an incident that Panahi and fellow filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami read about in the news: a thief, trapped by the security system inside a shop takes extreme action. Panahi explains, "I became obsessed with this story: what could have pushed a human being so far? Abbas ended up writing a screenplay about this incident, tracing the events leading up to it and discovering how and why such a horrifying thing could occur."

Un Certain Regard Jury Award, Cannes 2003