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As a renowned author, Mahmoud feels
pressure to compose his next great novel, but he is suffering
from writer’s block. He harkens back to a happier time when
he was a shy, awkward 11-year-old on his family’s lush estate
in Tehran. He recalls his 14-year-old cousin, a tomboy who is
nonetheless a ravishing beauty. She revels in the power that she
has over him. That adolescent
girl of long ago—or the memory of her—becomes the muse
that inspires him.
The film opens in a dark and drab
contemporary setting but comes alive with light and color when
Mahmoud remembers his
childhood from the late 1940s—a time of respite for Iran
before the political crises of the 1950s. Controversial filmmaker
Dariush Mehrjui (The Cow; Santouri) offers a haunting, autobiographical
account of childhood that reminds us all of the power of memory.
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