The abuse of power and its consequences have long been the stuff of drama or story or film, from Aristophanes’ The Wasps to Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes to Costa-Gavras’ 1969 film about military rule in Greece, Z. The President by Iranian exile film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, is a fable set in “an unknown country”. It concerns a dictator, draped in military decorations, who finds himself suddenly deposed and forced to flee. The President begins in a pale stone palace: the tyrant and his pale, solemn grandson, who at five or six wears a tiny version of his forebear’s uniform, are overlooking the city’s night-time illuminations. They play a game. By lifting a phone they can extinguish and then revive the vitality of the me