The President's strong opening gives way to heavy-handed preaching.
An ageing dictator (Gomiashvilli) sits at the large window that overlooks his capital city (Makhmalbaf keeps the country's identity a secret throughout). He's dressed in military pomp, complete with an embarrassing array of medals. His advisor leans into his ear, asks him to rethink the execution of a sixteen-year-old boy accused of treason and terrorism. Before him is his six-year-old grandson (Orvelashvilli) who claims he doesn't want to rule when he grows up. But grandad shows him the power he can wield: he picks up the phone and tells whoever is listening to 'turn off the lights'. A moment later the capital descends into darkness. The delighted boy joins in, ordering the lights turned on and off and on, laughing as chaos descends on the streets and ambulance sirens blare.
But this absolute power is to come to an end. Discord among the people leads to rebellion and soon the president and his family are forced to flee. A mix up at the airport has the president and his grandson separated from the family and, when their motorcade is bombarded and their bodyguard shot, the two escape into the countryside. Disguising themselves as peasants, the president learns for the first time what shape his country is really in and what his subjects think of him.
If Moshen Makhmalbaf is here to highlight the arrogance and corruption of those in power in, we can assume, former Soviet bloc countries he also saves some vitriol for those supposedly righteous rebels who dispose the despots. At one point militia soldiers stop a civilian bus and rob the passengers of their possessions, before raping a bride and shooting her dead. But it's all a bit clumsy and on the nose.
And events slow to a crawl. The danger of their real identity being made known should inject tension and keep the 'heroes' ducking and diving, but Makhmalbaf doesn't come up with enough scenarios that threaten their unmasking. What keeps things ticking over is the touching relationship between grandad and grandson, the latter longing to return to the palace and reunite with his beloved sister Maria; Grandad keeping his thoughts on the palace probably burned and Maria more than likely executed to himself.
