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.