Tehran 7:00 A.M.

The location is Teheran, the time is seven o’clock in the morning and a large group of pedestrians is waiting at a red traffic light. The young policeman operating the traffic lights leaves the red light on as long as he can in order to have more time to study the object of his desire, an actress. When he expresses his love, there is obviously a large gulf between them. In a laboratory for drug control, two unpleasant and tyrannical men test the urine of customers. They have almost reached pensionable age and have been terrified all their lives of inspection. Today an inspector comes, without their knowing. In the busy streets of Teheran, a motorcyclist earns his living by giving people lifts on the back. He listens carelessly to the stories of customers and quickly jumbles up the facts confided in him, until an old man makes things difficult for him. An Afghan welder sees a girl escape from a man. They become interested in each other -while they tell each other lies about their lives. Razavian interweaves these stories in his second feature, that started as a documentary project, into a rich and indeed documentary looking palette about 24 hours in the life of Teheran. Razavian -whose first feature Journey of the Grey Men took part in last year’s VPRO Tiger Awards competition -provides a human, sharply observant and humorous portrait of the Iranian capital.