First Case, Second Case
Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Country: Iran
Year: 1979
Runtime: 53 minutes
Color / Mono
This extraordinary film was made in the spring of 1979, not long after the shah's overthrow. Kiarostami stages two versions of a classroom discipline situation: in one, a student tells on a troublemaker, and in the other, seven students refuse to rat. Several adult authorities then comment on the different outcomes. The fascinating responses evoke the conflict between order and resistance.