An abstract retelling of the history of Film in Iran.

Mirza Ebrahim Khan, travels past in time to introduce cinematography to the previous king who can afford to pay for the new industry. But Nasser-e-din Shah takes an interest in the actress starring "Dokhtare Lor" movie and becomes an actor.—Kourosh Ghaniyoun

This movie is a comedy/drama/fantasy about Nasser-e-din Shah (Ezzatollah Entezami)king of Iran in 19th century who censors films and is against cinema. Following seeing Golnaar (Fatemeh Motamed-Aria) the lead actress in the first speaking movie in Iran (Dokhtar-e Lor) he falls in love with her and in order to find her he goes after cinema. Another leading character is Mirza Ebrahim Khan (Mehdi Hashemi) the Cinematographer which appears in different times and eras during the movie and tries to convince the king about beauty of the cinema. Once Upon A Time Cinema is a homage to cinema in general and Iranian cinema in special. During movie clips from famous Iranian films are shown or used in plot in surrealistically. The ending is cinema paradiso-esque one with screening of Iranian well known films up to the production date in 1991.—Farshid Tehranian