Movie Review: 3 Faces

3 Faces *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Jafar Panahi.

Written by: Jafar Panahi and Nader Saeivar.

Starring: Behnaz Jafari (Herself), Jafar Panahi (Himself), Marziyeh Rezaei (Herself), Maedeh Erteghaei (Herself), Narges Delaram (Mother).

 

Jafar Panahi keeps making films, despite the fact that he has be banned from doing so in his native country of Iran – for speaking out against the government. In the last 10 years, he has made four fascinating films – This is Not a Film, which explicitly tried to skirt the rules of his ban, and addressed it directly, Closed Curtain, about a screenwriter trying to shut out the outside world, unsuccessfully, Taxi – which is basically Panahi driving people around Tehran, sometimes being recognized, sometimes not. Now comes 3 Faces, a surprisingly light film for one that starts with a supposed (and convincingly shot) suicide of a young woman. Once again, Panahi plays himself – he’s one of two main presences in the film – and yet the 3 Faces of the title belong to three actresses, in different phases of their career.

 

The film opens with the supposed suicide of Marziyeh, a young Iranian woman from a remote village, who apparently was accepted to study acting in Tehran, but whose family (and the family of her fiancé) will not let her attend. She’s the first of the three actresses – struggling to even start her career. The second actress is Behnaz Jafari – a famous Iranian actress, who Marziyeh addresses directly in her suicide video – saying she tried to get in contact with her to help her, and since she never got a response, she is now doing this. The video though wasn’t sent to Behnaz – but Panahi, who thinks the suicide must be genuine, because the video is so convincing, and no one from this remote village could do something like that. Behnaz is devastated at the thought that Marziyeh has killed herself – and has enlisted Panahi to drive to her village, and discover the truth. Eventually we will hear – although never see – another actress, now an old woman living on the outskirts of the town, ignored by everyone. She was once famous – doing films before the revolution, whose fate of being poor, alone and forgotten, is trotted out by the villagers as the reason they don’t want people like the “empty headed” Marziyeh from pursuing acting. 

 

Panahi is referencing the films of the late, great Iranian Abbas Kiaorstami here – you will remember that Kiarostami’s Palme D’Or winning film The Taste of Cherry (1997) also revolved around suicide, and took place in the countryside. But Panahi’s film is more hopeful than Kiarostami’s. It is a feminist film in its way – not surprising from the filmmaker, whose last feature before the ban was Offside – about a young woman who wants to go see the national team play soccer – but all women are banned from stadiums. Here, the film is about how little control women have over their own lives – the older actress who has been shamed and ostracized, the young woman who is not allowed to pursue her passion. Only Behnaz has kind of made it out – at least for now, and she is beloved for now – but it’s a tenuous hold.

 

And yet, it would be wrong to say that the film is about how closed minded the small town men who control the women. They have their own problems – and when they first see the famous Behnaz and Panahi, they think they are there to help them with their own issues. They are struggling with basics – and perhaps it really does seem silly to pursue acting.

 

Like most of Panahi’s post ban film, I like the way this one is shot – a lot of long takes, with a camera that moves slowly. The opening, from inside the car as they drive through the night – seems to go on forever, as it slowly revolves, following the pair out of, and back in the car, etc. And it is matched by the haunting final shot of the film, which goes on for a long time. 3 Faces is light in many ways – and yet, it is dealing with serious subjects, and the final shot drive that home. Is it a happy ending? A sad ending? An ending at all? I’m not sure. Panahi doesn’t try and tie everything up – it is, at best, an ambiguous ending. Nothing has really been resolved here – and Panahi doesn’t try to pretend it is.