Women's expressions are captured as they watch Khosrow and Shirin, a 12th-century Persian play staged by Kiarostami, revealing their reactions to the unseen narrative.

A hundred and fourteen famous Iranian theater and cinema actresses and a French star: mute spectators at a theatrical representation of Khosrow and Shirin, a Persian poem from the twelfth century, put on stage by Kiarostami. The development of the text -- long a favorite in Persia and the Middle East -- remains invisible to the viewer of the film, the whole story is told by the faces of the women watching the show.—Venice Film Festival