New Wave films shared some characteristics with the European art films of the period, in particular Italian Neorealism. However, in her article ‘Real Fictions’, Rose Issa argues that Iranian films have a distinctively Iranian cinematic language “that champions the poetry in everyday life and the ordinary person by blurring the boundaries between fiction and reality, feature film with documentary.” She also argues that this unique approach has inspired European cinema directors to emulate this style, citing Michael Winterbottom’s award-winning In This World (2002) as an homage to contemporary Persian cinema.