FRANCE. Paris. 1997. Iran is at a crossroad, five months after its new President, Mohammad Seyyed Khatami - elected with a landslide 20 million vote - assumed power. Unoblivious to the pending struggle for power between the two factions, a "liberal" and a conservative one, Iran's civil society seeks ouvertures in the rigid religious code imposed by the mullarchy. Artists are at the forefront of this struggle. Football enthousiasts follow.

FRANCE: PARIS Film director Mohsen MAKHMALBAF in an Iranian restaurant in Paris. A religious revolutionary , who was emprisonned by the Shah's regime, he is now critical of the mullarchy. His latest film "Gabbeh" was a worldwide success.