Rasoulof is obviously working from an angle critical of the government overall. The opening two thirds of the film are a bit more ambivalent than the ending, because we see the complicated relationship between the domestic peace that the government job brings to Iman’s family, but through the daughters and their friends also come to sympathize with the protestors. But even then, we’re primed to be suspicious of the government, and I never got the sense that Rasoulof wanted us to view the protestors as anything other than justified and in the right. The ending felt like a logical conclusion to this for me — the government personified (Iman) turning into a vicious and paranoid aggressor.

I am curious what your take is on the ending and how it failed to depict the agency or culpability of “the people” as represented by Rezvan, Sana, and Najmeh. I’m not at all an expert on global geopolitics, which includes Iran’s political context, so I’m sure there’s nuance and important context slipping past me. I mostly come at these films from a storytelling perspective rather than a political perspective, but obviously that context is very important to a film like this.

(If you do reply, feel free to include spoilers, you can just add a spoilers warning before it.)