Rent 3 Faces (2018)

Impressive and brave - 3 Faces review by PD

This latest offering from Iranian director Jafar Panahi is another not-so subtle political allegory, with the director taking twinned roles of director and driver, as in 'Taxi Tehran'. He again plays himself (or at least a version of himself) and spends a large part of the film behind the wheel motoring through the Iranian countryside to help an actress (Behnaz Jafari, also playing herself) find a missing woman. In so doing they also find other women, including one who remains invisible to the camera, and thus is raised the theme of gender division that runs through the film. The division between fiction and documentary, performance and 'real life', and the intimate claustrophobia of the car, becomes an emblem of the larger interior-exterior divide faced by all the characters, particularly the women; the question of a woman’s proper role — onscreen and off — is raised time and time again. There's also some quirky touches and gentle humour, particularly in scenes involving the villagers, although perhaps the humour isn't quite as cutting as it was in 'Taxi Tehran'.

Quite a few of the plot twists are perhaps a tad contrived, and the defiant ending seems rather implausible to me, but this is still an impressive and brave piece of work.

Alive or dead? Let's find out.... - 3 Faces review by DF

Two movie celebrities Jafar Panahi and Behnaz Jafari, playing themselves in an unusual movie twist, make a journey to a village in a search for a young woman who had been messaging Jafari (that is, in the movie!) for assistance to escape her oppressive family so that she can pursue her studies. As a final ploy to gain Jafari's attention, the young woman stages her own video suicide and sends it to Jafari's friend Panahi.   Jafari is distraught and together with Pahani they both set off for the very isolated village to find out what is going on.  The village is indeed very culturally traditional and the people there have obviously no time for a young woman who might think of going to college; gender roles are well defined. Panahi makes some quirky and humorous observations of village life; for example, the village elders have a complicated car horn morse code system for regulating traffic on the narrow track up to the village, because they can't be bothered to allow improvements to the road, thereby compounding their isolation. Generally however the villagers are friendly to the two 'celebrities in a tradition bound way and, with some running around, Jafari attempts to track down the young woman and whether or not she is dead.  At first, all does not go well as Jafari throws a bit of a fit thinking that she may, after all, have been scammed.  The gender oppression of women in the village is cruel and obvious; there is an unseen character, an artist and ex actress who is ostracised by the villagers because she is what they call, in a dismissive way, an 'entertainer'.  The gender oppressiveness in the village is exposed but Panahi reflects on himself by using a little mischievous irony in a scene where he is 'hen-pecked' on the phone by his mother.  The cosmopolitan Jafari does not escape oppression either as she is expected to perform her celebrity role incessantly at work and in life.  Oppression is the theme.  Overall a movie well worth watching, quirky and thought provoking but also an insight into Iranian life and the subtlety of its excellent and brave moviemakers.

Mesmerising - 3 Faces review by MM

A totally engaging and serious film, set in Iran - a perfect, slow film, with excellent acting and cinematography - transporting you to the people, the landscapes, with subtle and not-so-subtle insights into the culture, particularly the lives of women - but also the men - very highly recommended.