3 Faces
Leaving Soon
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1h 40m
Leaving February 1
Directed by Jafar Panahi | 100 mins | 2018
Panahi’s fourth post-filmmaking ban feature begins with a smartphone video of a young woman (Marziyeh Rezaei) who, forbidden by her parents to pursue her dream of acting professionally, appears to take her own life. The video is addressed to Behnaz Jafari, who, hoping to discover with certitude the fate of its subject, asks Panahi—both actress and director play themselves—to drive her to the presumably dead woman’s home village, the two hitting the road in his SUV, along the way having a string of unusual encounters that include a meetings with a woman who’s dug her own grave and a stud bull with “golden balls.” An idiosyncratic road movie that gradually reveals itself as a meditation on the plight of actresses in conservative Iran, at once venerated and despised, and a gesture of tender solidarity from Panahi.
Up Next in Leaving Soon
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Aguirre, the Wrath of God
Leaving February 1
Directed by Werner Herzog | 94 mins | 1972
The first collaboration between Herzog and Klaus Kinski cast the notoriously unhinged actor as the even more unhinged 16th-century conquistador Don Lope de Aguirre—nicknamed “El Loco” or “The Madman”—found embarking on his final missi... -
All About Lily Chou-Chou
Leaving February 1
Directed by Shunji Iwai | 146 mins | 2001
Incredibly prescient in its understanding of how a still-young internet would fundamentally alter youth culture, Shunji’s film introduces Yuichi (Hayato Ichihara) in an ice field, the landscape gradually obscured by accreting chat room... -
Big Fish & Begonia
Leaving February 1
Directed by Xuan Liang and Chun Zhang | 105 mins | 2016
“Spirited Away” meets “The Little Mermaid” in this gorgeously crafted fantasy blockbuster—a tale of shapeshifting, interspecies love and sacrifice sprung from ancient Chinese fables. The teenaged Chun—one of a mythical ra...
