The film was screened in the “Certain Regard” section in Cannes.
The story of the film is about Reza who is a fish farmer. He lives a quiet life with his wife and child in the Iranian countryside. But he learns to his own detriment that society around him is corrupt, even as he resists being pulled into the insidious system of payoffs, bribes, lying and constant moral compromise required to survive, ISNA reported.
He yearns for the simple rule of law, but finds it nowhere: a company trying to drive him off his land can access the water supply to his fish via the local police. The religious police trying to smoke out his secret supply of watermelon liquor is also pulling the strings in a bogus fine levied against him. It’s all an attempt to bring him to heel, but Reza will not yield, and his life keeps getting worse as debts amass and his child is targeted at school.