Drama directed by and starring Jafar Panahi. After a desperate call from a girl whose family is preventing her going to drama school, an Iranian film star and her director take a road trip to the girl's remote village. On their journey they encounter a variety of locals who give them an insight into the values and beliefs of the region.
Jafar Panahi won the best screenplay prize at Cannes for the fourth feature he has produced since the imposition of a 20-year ban from film-making. The spirit of Abbas Kiarostami pervades proceedings, as Panahi accompanies film star Behnaz Jafari (playing herself) to the village in Iranian Azerbaijan from which a 20-something woman has sent desperately troubling phonecam footage after her conservative parents refused to let her act. Despite referencing his own situation, Panahi is more interested in the silencing of expression and the subjugation of women in his homeland. Quickly resolving the mystery of the missing girl, he focuses on the #MeToo-like shame of a reclusive actress. Moreover, Panahi lets Amin Jafari's camera wander, as the travellers meet an old woman who has dug her own grave, a farmer faced with an ailing bull and a father wishing to entrust his guests with a treasured possession. Densely symbolic but engagingly accessible, this is the work of a master at ease with his art and his plight.
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Jafar Panahi | Jafar Panahi |
| Behnaz Jafari | Behnaz Jafari |
| Marziyeh Rezaei | Marziyeh Rezaei |
| Erteghaei Maedeh | Erteghaei Maedeh |
| Poetry reading | Kobra Saeedi |
| role | name |
|---|---|
| Director | Jafar Panahi |
