The rare early Kiarostami film made outside of Kanoon, and
one of the most downbeat of his features, this adult drama
concerns a civil servant besieged on two fronts: he’s accused of taking bribes, and his marriage is collapsing (Kiarostami has admitted this latter element was autobiographical). Full of
prerevolutionary disquiet, the film features future star Shohreh
Aghdashloo as the wife.