3 Faces

Screening on 31/01/20

Iran 2018
Dir: Jafar Panahi
Starring: Behnaz Jafari, Jafar Panahi, Marziyeh Rezaei
Cert 15
100 mins

Officially banned from filmmaking, Jafar Panahi has made a career out of not doing as he is told! Hence 3 Faces, his fourth post-ban minimalist feature. Present-day Iran. A desperate young woman records a video on her phone of her apparent suicide which she has arranged to be sent to a film director, with the request that it be shown to an actress friend of his. The actress and director travel to the remote north of the country, where the young woman grew up, to search for clues. In a bizarre road trip their encounters with highly conservative villagers, the grassroots of the Islamic revolution, are problematic and often farcical. Although the film highlights the patriarchal nature of Iranian society, with all the irrational contradictions that implies, and its negative impact on the lives of women, it is not without charm and a lightness of touch, and remains resolutely optimistic in tone.

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