Funded mostly by Iranian state oil and mining companies, this documentary is dazzling in its presentation, but careless about the historical facts. A mixed bag of a documentary, but especially good at the "docu-drama", "edu-tainment" end of the documentary spectrum. One of the most interesting parts of the documentary as presented on the DVD is the "making of" segment which allows one to see some of the means of production and just how much of the film was guided by the director and his Iranian translators and handlers. Some parts are highly entertaining and others are tendentious and "propagandizing". It is in some ways a tour-de-force of the "infomercial", but this time for an entire civilization.