Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s fourth feature (1985, though recently reedited by him) was reportedly the first to be widely noticed. It’s a highly energetic and troubled account of a leftist guerrilla’s arrest in Iran prior to the Islamic revolution and his experience in prisona story that has many points in common with Makhmalbaf’s own during the same period (though he was much younger). Surrealistic in some spots, didactic in others, the film records Makhmalbaf’s disenchantment with politics as well as his growing confidence as a craftsman; an early shootout and a car chase following a prison escape could both come out of a Hollywood thriller. With Majid Majidi, Mohammad Kasebi, and Zohre Sarmadi. (JR)