I read other reviews and ratings and wondered if they watched the same movie or maybe a poor pirated copy. It is a disturbing story because it portrays life under a hypocritical & corrupt regime that uses religion as an excuse to perpetuate cruel acts of violence, sadism, theft, torture and brutal murder. It does not tell the whole story but gives an insight into the impact on one family and those around them. I grew up hearing these stories and by coincidence sat across a table today from a young woman whose true story was so extraordinarily similar.

Prior to the Iranian revolution it was a place where people of all religions were allowed to flourish. This is the story of a prosperous Jewish family who abandon everything before they are consumed by the passions of revolutionaries. I wonder which person thought that casting Adrien Brody as a Jew with a weird accent and Salma Hayek as his wife? The film hardly finds it's mark or what it tries to achieve and honestly it's nowhere as good as it could have been or it should be especially with the talent involved. (0/10)

I was touched by the movie even though the script was not what it could have been and some of the interactions (Farneh x Habibeh, Habibeh x Morteza) seemed too contrived and over-scripted. I am not sure whether this carried over from the novel or originated in the movie script. But the story overall is compelling and has an unmistakable feel of reality. The cruelty and moral corruption rings true and obviously is not something that comes from any particular ideology or religion. Some people in times of chaos, social upheavals or revolutions turn into animals and find all sorts of pseudo-moral excuses for being that way. Times of disorder will always invite rapine, settling of personal accounts and revolting inhumanity. Adrien Brody as Isaac and Alon Aboutboul as his jailer and interrogator were excellent. Their interaction make the film well worth while seeing.

The only truth is that the movie is mediocre at best, regardless of the propaganda aspect. It's overwhelmingly one sided in substance and disappointing to watch, since it actually distorts the cause of certain historical events which took place. It tries too hard to focus on a single side effect of the revolution, and at a certain point, it becomes insulting to ones intelligence regardless of political views. Obviously, the reason is that it doesn't want to exposed any other detail about grievances a whole people might have had, as would be the case in any revolution. It claims to be based on true events, but those events are manipulated and exaggerated to such a degree that you walk away hating a whole people, not knowing really why... and not learning anything new.