The film was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture but encountered opposition from the Iranian medical establishment and was banned for three years. It was finally released in 1977, with help from pressure from the Carter administration to increase human rights and intellectual freedoms in Homeland. Because of a crowded film marketplace, the film premiered in Paris, and then released internationally where it received rave reviews and was compared to Luis Buñuel’s Los Olvidados and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Accattone.