First look at the Iranian auteur's latest work of defiance.
Filmmaking is a difficult process under any circumstances, but especially so when your work is the subject of a government ban.
That's the situation faced by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi since 2010, when his government objected to the content of his work and subjected him to a 20 year ban.
Of course, Panahi has famously defied the ban, reinventing himself with a series of films - This Is Not a Film; Closed Curtain; Taxi Tehran - that blur the lines between documentary and fiction, while slyly critiquing the Iranian regime.
His latest, 3 Faces, which stars Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari as fictional versions of themselves, just premiered at Cannes, where it's in competition for the Palme d'Or, and you can check out the trailer below.
The official synopsis reads:
Well-known actress Behnaz Jafari is distraught by a provincial girl’s video plea for help – oppressed by her family to not pursue her studies at the Tehran drama conservatory. Behnaz abandons her shoot and turns to filmmaker Jafar Panahi to help solve the mystery of the young girl’s troubles. They travel by car to the rural northwest where they have amusing encounters with the charming folk of the girl’s mountain village. But the city visitors soon discover that the protection of age-old traditions is as generous as local hospitality…