Drei Gesichter

"3 Faces" (2018 release from Iran; 100 min.) brings the story of Behnaz Jafari, a popular Iranian actress (and playing herself in this film). As the movie opens, a teenage girl posts an Instagram addressed to Jafari, where she seemingly hangs herself, distraught at the fact that her family won't let her study at an art school in Tehran. Jafari and a friend (director Panahi, playing himself) decide to searches for the girl... At this point we're 10 min. into the movie but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from writer-director Jafar Panahi, who in 2010 was banned by the Iranian authorities from making any more movies. Panahi's excellent 2011 movie "This Is Not a Film" was the first to be made during that ban, and "3 Faces" is the 4th. Working on a micro-budget and at great personal risk, Panahi and his crew nevertheless manage to brings us a riveting film about what life in rural Iran is really like., and the cost in terms of the human condition. In other words, this is the perfect opposite of the latest Marvel superhero movie. Given the plot-heavy nature of the movie, I can't say much more.

"3 Faces" premiered at this year's Cannes film festival to universal acclaim, and Panahi won (in absentia, of course) the festival's Best Screenplay award. I'd say the chances of this movie getting an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Movie are pretty good too. I happen to catch this film during a recent family visit in Belgium. The early evening screening where I saw this at in Antwerp, Belgium was not attended well (exactly 5 people, myself included). Regardless, if you are in the mood for a top notch foreign film that was made despite a ban on the director, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (if and when this reaches US theaters), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

To the pantheon of road movies we can add Jafar Panahi's "Se rokh" ("3 Faces" in English), about an actress traveling across the country. Panahi plays himself in the movie. It's amazing that he managed to make the movie, as he's currently banned from making movies, due to depicting things that Iran's government finds inappropriate (such as "Offside", in which women try to attend a soccer game but get kept out of the stadium due to the sight of men in shorts).

Watching this movie, I got the feeling that life in Iran's hinterlands must be a miserable existence. It's not a great movie, but worth seeing as a look at people whom we don't often see.

The old, forgotten actress, the established, popular actress and an aspiring actress. Against the cultural landscape of Iran it can be tricky to do this profession as a woman.

Metafiction, docufiction and everything in between. Of course, it's Jafar Panahi, it's expected to find plenty of discourse about movie-making and its difficulties. At one point, the actress is trying to explain to an old villager that the actor he admires cannot come back to Iran anymore and Panahi cannot leave Iran. It's a short line, we get it. The man doesn't, of course, but it wasn't really for him. There's also a healthy dose of criticism against the patriarchy by merely observing these people and letting it all play out. There is no discourse served to the audience, no loud, rousing statements. Some of these men would kill to avenge their skewed idea of honour.

Although I appreciated most of the scenes, it did feel a little too long, although it's really not, and maybe Panahi's metafiction is beginning to wear me out. But I guess he did get a chance to make the movie he was referring to in "This Is Not a Film". At least the core idea from there is the same, even if the story goes to a different place. Girl from a conservative family wants to study, but her family forbids it. She contemplates suicide.

First of all I want to share my emotions after the movie (I will not add any words that contain spoilers). This film is just worth to be watched if you want to know what is happening in the lives of people in countries where honor and dignity are above all. Above their desires, their grand dreams, their plans, their lives. How it's difficult for people to live, according to our humble version, in the mountainous settlements of Iran (South Azerbaijan). How hard they have to live when there is not enough help from the townspeople. But despite all this, everything ends at the will of the person himself, whose desires are above honor and dignity.

Story: An Iranian girl wants to be an actress & gets a famous Iranian actress to investigate her desire. A relatively tame presentation of the issue. I've seen many movies on what young females, wherever they may be (including unlikely Western democracies), face to maintain family honor though obedience & marriage, e.g. coercion, shaming, disowning, punishment, imprisonment, & death. "A women who wants to study dishonors her family." "God blesses families with a son." "Marriage would make her forget about studies." Others to watch: "Difret", "A Suitable Girl", "What Will People Say", "He Named Me Malala".