In
key scenes (Sahmi's meeting with the General, the montage
sequence showing Houshang's attempts to raise money using repetitive framing devices, and several of Parviz's
key scenes, which often function like
dramatic monologues) the performances appear often to be slightly stylized and theatrical, offering, I believe, a degree of distanciation (in the Brechtian sense), somewhat in the manner of, say, Rainer Werner Fassbinder.