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Feeling the influence of classic Japanese cinema, New York-based Iranian director Amir Naderi decided to shoot his new picture in the land of the Rising Sun. He set the story of Shuji, a young filmmaker and lover of classic cinema, on the young man’s apartment terrace (which also serves as a film club), but also in a bar where Yakuza thugs congregate. Shuji is being forced to pay off a debt his murdered brother owes the mafia. Their uninviting establishment becomes the locus of a bizarre spectacle, another of Shuji’s “directorial events.” To wit, the avid film fan allows himself to be used as a punching bag for the amusement of the aggressive gangsters, thereby paying off the debt. Naderi conceives his bitter cry in defense of Art Film as a metaphorical lampoon against the injustices which today’s filmmakers must suffer if they decide to stand firm and uncompromising by their personal visions. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)