Due to raging, negative public sentiment, we follow the collapse of an authoritarian leader and his grandson in the film The President. In an unknown country, a dictatorial President, like the Roman emperor Nero, causes a citywide blackout for his own pleasure and enjoyment. But the president senses a revolution brewing and sends his family far away. Eventually, a coup is born and the President and his grandson find themselves forced to flee. Their only hope is to seek refuge by the ocean and take a boat out the country. On the run and in disguise, the President ends up meeting many people who suffered under his tyrannical rule. Director Mohsen Makhmalbaf has dealt with topics of violence and slaughter, and having watched the recent unrest in the Arab world, so called Arab Spring, he examines with the film The President why the road to democracy and the end of dictatorship do not necessarily signal the end of hostility. His answer lies at the end of the film. (KIM Ji-seok)