A deeply unsettling work that examines the legacy of war with uncommon insight. Haji, a photography student and journalist, has been severely traumatized by an explosion in the war with Iraq. Tormented by his nightmarish visions, he is released into the care of his fiancée and her relatives. Haji finds the atmosphere in the city unbearable; the contradictions between this reality and the one at the front precipitate his breakdown. His fiancée's family want to cancel the wedding but she stands by him while he returns to his job as a news photographer, shooting ordinary people in the streets. The film, a kind of Iranian Born on the Fourth of July, elicited conflicting critical reaction in Tehran. Some considered it an anti-war, even an anti-Islamic revolution film; others viewed it as an elegy to a generation that suffered while others profited from the war. There is no question that it is a profoundly shocking portrayal of a man traumatized by the horrors of modern warfare.-Piers Handling, Toronto Film Festival