Writer Sylvie is searching for inspiration for her new novel. In the grip of creative desperation, she begins watching a sound studio across the street through a telescope. The lives and romantic entanglements she imagines for the strangers opposite become material for her book. But Adam, a mysterious young man hired to help with her move, discovers her secret, and the line between fiction and reality begins to blur. Loosely inspired by the sixth episode of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog, Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s latest feature explores how surveillance and storytelling shape our perception of reality. It also evokes the irrepressible power of the imagination in a country where everything is watched and filmmakers can no longer work freely.
