Arquivo

It all begins with a tragedy – the death of a jeweler in a hold-up, followed by suicide on the part of the criminal. Then a long flashback showing day-to-day existence for a delivery-boy on a motorcycle: by day, he is a thief stealing ladies handbags; at night, a boy delivering pizzas to luxury buildings. He lives class distinction all of the time. The filmscript is by Abbas Kiarostami, based on a piece of news from a newspaper seen from the point of view of two rascals. One of the most shocking sequences takes place at dawn, when the police arrest youngsters on their way down from a party in a luxury apartment – the Teheran police are in the habit of repressing gatherings of this type. Iranian censors stipulated a series of cuts because the film shows the contradictions in the capital, divided between the rich in the north and the poor in the south, in addition to state terror in moral repression of youngsters, supported by the Ayatollah regime.