After she was presented with the award Makhmalbaf said "I would like to dedicate this prize to all the women of the world”. At twenty She is the youngest of the 20 directors competing at the festival.
Remaining true to her style the film uses a cast of real life people focusing on their daily lives and turmoil. The heroin this time is a dreamer. While wearing the head-to-toe Burqa she dreams of being a powerful president while living her daily restricted life in Afghanistan. Nogreh, the heroin has to confront a strict father who is visibly uncomfortable with the post-Taliban liberties exercised by the population. To him the Burqa was the keeper of the family honor. The film in poignant in that it shows even after a repressive regime is thrown off, its value systems although imposed by force, are hard to tear down.
Makhmalbaf, had won a special prize at Cannes in 2000 for "Blackboards",
Makhmalbaf is not shy about speaking her mind. "I wanted to show reality, not the clichés on television saying that the US went to Afghanistan and rescued the people from the Taliban, that the US did a 'Rambo'," she told journalists at Cannes. "When I went there it just wasn't like that."