[4] Inspired by director Amir Naderi’s own boyhood, it sets the tone for many of the films that followed: realism, children's perspective of the world, innocence, gentleness, set in poor neighbourhoods, exposing great disparities in wealth, resting much of the film on the shoulders of one young actor, using children's lives as analogies for, or explicit expositions of, the problems of the adult world.
The film is critically acclaimed for presenting an authentic image of the encounter with modernity in Iranian cinema.
A man riding a bicycle enters, asks for a glass of ice water from Amiro, takes it, and then pedals away without paying.
He purchases a large ice chunk, and two men arrive to steal it, but it falls off and breaks in half.
Despite the difficulty of carrying the large ice chunks in his hand, he arrives at the runner, where an aeroplane takes off.
Sweating Amir hurls melting ice chunks at the plane in a show of honour.
Moussa, his bosom friend, arrives and takes him for the last time before he departs with his brother for the sea.
Following that, he enrols in a nearby school and diligently learns the Persian alphabet, as the wise ocean and its waves bless him.
Later, a local man who works at the seaport accuses Amir of stealing a trivial item from a foreigner.
Amiro works hard to prepare for the competition, and at the race, they all run against each other, desperate to win.
The film concludes with the victory of the young boy Amiro, whose calm continues to melt as he faces the harsh reality of outside fire, and he is willing to fly above the clouds to win.