A Russian nesting doll, a mise en abime, a mediation on the intense need to create, a riff on the impossibility of true "documentary", a loving snipe at the more ethnic or folklorical of the two great Iranian directors. A film where a can rolling down the street functions as a beautifully observed, understated poetic trope. A film that examines the whole notion of "image". A film that shows us the richness and depth of a society which we so often reduce to a series of negative clichés. A film with humor and compassion for all of its characters, but that doesn't bang you over the head with it. A radical approach to narrative which reconciles both post - narrative and post - post - narrative approaches to cinema. A film that makes you think, without slathering on any kind of "message". A film that brings up issues pertinent to film itself: questions of representation,storytelling, form, truth,etc. A freaking masterpiece!
