The name of the film brings to mind the elementary school's textbook story of the Self-Sacrificing Farmer, Rizali Khajavi, who stops a fast running train from derailment by stones as he lights up his shirt in the middle of the cold winter night, while running toward it.

Sirous Hassanpour, the director of the film, has taken the popularity of the name for granted, trying to remind us that there are many other self-sacrificing farmers like Rizali, and that there is no need to bother to find them somewhere else.

Until few years ago, it was assumed that the story in the textbooks of the 2nd elementary school was simply its writer's imagination, but after a thorough investigation, the real hero of the story, Rizali Khajavi, was finally located in a village called Qahremanloo, in East Azarbaijan. As a result of such fascinating discovery, he became the main subject of Hassanpour's film.

The film begins with a kid reading the story in a classroom near the village of Rizali Khajavi. The story fascinates the kids, and the teacher promises to invite the real hero to their school party. However, Rizali can not make it to the party, so a student named Alireza, together with his friend, Mousa, decide to go to his village to take his picture for the class.

They cannot find Rizali at his home and get one of his pictures from his real wife and head back. On the way back, they notice that railway has been blocked by stones and that a train is on its way towards them.

The story narrates itself smoothly, but when the kids fail to find Rizali, and also other villagers refuse to open their doors for them, the audience starts to think it is going to be a cliched story like "Where Is Friend's House" by Abbas Kiarostami. But when they meet Rizali's real wife, the story gets back to its originality.

It is difficult for the audience to predict the end of the story, which tries to show the self-sacrificing farmer in Mousa's character.

The beginning titles of the film that are taken from the educational fonts of the elementary school, and the music, which is Azari, give more beauty and charm to the film. Lack of subtitles for dialogues in Azari, create a bit of confusion in the middle of the film though.

Produced by the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (CIDCYA), the Self-Sacrificing Farmer will compete in both the Iranian Cinema, and Films About Children, in the 17th International Festival of Film for Children and Young Adults in Isfahan.