3 Faces (Se rokh)

In this fascinating, tender-hearted road movie, famed Iranian actress Behnaz Jafari, playing herself, journeys from her latest film set to a remote village. She’s responding to a desperate video from a young woman who dreams of becoming an actress, but whose family won’t let her leave home. Encounters that are both whimsical and delightfully curious—an old woman who’s trying out her grave for size; a stud bull, the ultimate symbol of virility, that’s fallen and broken his leg—provide a thematic backdrop for this exploration of women and men, tradition and freedom of choice. And at the helm on this journey is Behnaz’s driver, director Jafar Pahani who, as he did in Taxi (MVFF 2015), takes the wheel as a character in his fourth film since Iran banned him from making movies in 2011. In storytelling that’s deceptively simple, Panahi creates a richly layered and eloquent journey—right down to the last image.