Shahnaz Shahbazi

A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.

Amangol (Altinay Ghelich Taghani) is the eldest daughter in a poor rural family. To help support them, her head is shaven and begins work as a boy named Aman in an isolated carpet weaving shop. The girls who work there are beaten by the owner, as is Aman, toiling at the loom until their hands bleed. As a male apprentice, he supervises the girls and lives in the shop, locked in and isolated.

Maryam Zademeh is a successful lawyer. One of her clients, Atiyeh, is beaten by her husband Jalil, who is suspected of being paranoid. Zademeh obtains a divorce decree from the court, and Jalil seeks revenge on him. The story revolves around the harassment of the husband and the lawyer's marriage, which ends in a full-fledged tragedy...