What he said was a bit harsher too; but I toned it down for the sake of propriety! Too bad the actual review won’t likely see the light of day. Man is the best international cinema huckster there is.

The Iranian flank of it, for those who give a damn.

It’s such a manipulative film, Peter. If only the Western media would even try to understand the years Panahi has spent in self-mythologizing himself, and if only they would show interest in hearing voices within the Iranian cinema industry vis-a-vis Panahi’s tactics. He’s deafened all other voices.

He never defines it outright; the details do the speaking. By the end, you still can’t pin power down in words, but you feel it: the compulsion, the ceaseless climb upward. It isn’t power itself that corrupts; it’s what comes with it: the fear of losing it, of sliding all the way back down.