Makhmalbaf himself divided his works into four phases in an article in The New York Times: "The first four films, made before 1985, are thinly disguised religious proselytizing.

From 1985 to 1990, when the ruling mullahs loosened censorship enough to allow movies to focus on general social problems, his perspective changed...After this, Mr. Makhmalbaf largely abandoned traditional narrative...First, he made what he calls his philosophical films, then he made the recent poetic movies that have landed him in trouble with the censors.

"[1] Sokout belongs to his poetic style of film making, where he gets rid of the shackles of classical narration and depicts some of his favorite themes by using symbolism coming from Sufi traditions.

From the use of music to achieve ecstasy; the nature, and the broken mirror, the repeated image of the river, to the light coming from above, the symbolic representation of mystic interpretations of Islam appear throughout the movie.

5 (Beethoven) shows that he deliberately wants to say the themes he is referring to are of a universal nature according to him, and not just mundane, ephemeral, matters.