From 1988 to 1998 the doctrine of the secret service in Iran come to the conclusion that the biggest threat toward their regime is not from foreign enemies, but the intellectual elite who continue their work despite all the suppressions and censorships. To eliminate this elite, a special unit founded and covertly eliminate around 80 writers, poets, critic etc. the most notable terror they tried was the Armenia Bus Accident which Mohamad Rasoulof explicitly explain during the movie, even the names and what they did on the mention night was unchanged. To give him more credit, he bravely made a character who is the Editor of an important newspaper and also an interrogator and torturer in secret service, is based on a real character, named Hossein Shariatmadari, Editor of Kayhan Newspaper (the same newspaper Kian used to wrap the vodka bottle) in last 24 years and well-known interrogator in Evin Prison, or the bus driver, Khosrou Bharati who participated in more murders after the bus accident. Rasoulof in not looking to build a hero with redemption, but try to create the atmosphere of terror and suppression. The continuity of terror, the dominant power of secret service on the life of people who have no power on their lives. The struggle of depressed men who keep resisting not reveal the manuscripts of their friends, and solemn life of the terrorist who his wife asked him on the phone "maybe it's because of your job that our son got cancer". To understand this movie it's better to compare it with Florian Henckel von Donnersmarcks' movie, "The Lives of Others (2006)" where the writer's redemption happened after the collapse of Berlin Wall. Although in Autocratic regimes intellectual Elites plays a prominent role, but their effort is nothing except informing the public under the continuity of fear and suppression with the price that sometimes they pay with their lives. In the other hand, Rasoulof tries to show the burden terrorist have on their shoulder. The people who deal with complicated life. From one hand, an ideological duty and from the other hand, the darkness terrorizing innocents bring to their lives. On writer, despite all the psychical impediments, trying to publish his last work, the other start a dangerous duel with his interrogator just to see his daughter for the last time, and a terrorist who must beg for money from his superiors just to hospitalized his child. The dignity under the suppression and humiliation, despite the free-will, to follow his ideological Duty. The kind of things you hear a lot in Iran
