As he has done previously, Panahi plays himself in the film, stationed in a village where he remotely directs a crew shooting a film just miles away, on the other side of the Iranian border in Turkey. With the help of his assistant director, who visits him nightly to deliver a hard drive full of footage, Panahi builds a story about a couple attempting to flee to France. At the same time, a group of village elders pays a visit to the filmmaker, asking him to share a photograph he allegedly took of a local couple in a forbidden relationship. When he insists he took no such photo, the village men refuse to believe him.
"This Venice competition entry /…/ stands as Panahi’s latest testimony – and a very overt one – to the way that artistry and protest will find a voice, regardless. A complex work of novelistic density, this is among the boldest and most accomplished statements from one of the world’s exemplary filmmakers, and one which will appeal at least as widely as his previous works to global arthouse audiences."
- Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily