Filmmaker Jafar Panahi and actor Behnaz Jafari travel to a tiny village after receiving a plea for help from a girl whose family has forbidden her from studying acting. Amusing encounters abound, but they soon discover that the local hospitality is rivaled by the desire to protect old traditions.
3개의 얼굴들, Se rokh, Three Faces, 3 kvinner, Üç Hayat, Три лица, Tre volti, Trois Visages, Drei Gesichter, 3 Hayat, 3 Kvinder, 伊朗三面戲劇人生, 三张面孔, Tres caras, 3 Rostos, 三張面孔, Trzy twarze, 3 kvinnor, Kolme naista
France
Cannes Film Festival
Turkey
Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival
South Korea
Busan International Film Festival
Brazil
São Paulo International Film Festival
Brazil
Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival
Russia18+
France
Spain
Hong Kong
Italy
Germany
Sweden11
UK
Brazil
PortugalM/14
Denmark15
South Korea15
Switzerland12
Austria12
Ireland15
France
JapanG
FranceU
FranceU
France
Austria
Brazil
Denmark
France
Germany
Hong Kong
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Portugal
Russia
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
UK
more expansive & elusive than Panahi’s other post-arrest stuff, as much a tribute to Kiarostami’s rural films as it is a cheeky meditation on the borders and boundaries of the modern world. a gentle pleasure, as expected. a lot more scrotum talk than expected, tho.
Panahi's Life, And Nothing More but paired with his sharp social lens. I was enamored. 3 Faces is as much Panahi's ode to film as it is to life. The actors play themselves within a fictional story about a young Iranian girl's struggles to become an actress. She is hindered by a simple fact: she lives in an Iranian village where there are no such opportunities. The villagers look at her with scorn, calling her 'empty-headed' because she took the crazy notion of studying into her head.
Panahi's subtlety again shows in his ability to shed light on all perspectives. He never takes it on himself to judge; he only portrays, inviting the audience to accept that oftentimes there exist…
Not going to pretend I understood all the nuances. But what I did understand I loved. I would have watched another hour. I didn’t want the final shot to end.
53/100
Not Panahi’s fault that I got overly enthused about the film I briefly thought he was making: a meta-reflexive, neorealist gloss on Suspicion in which nobody he knows can trust that they aren’t being filmed for some secret authority-defying project. (Still think that would’ve been amazing.) Instead, 3 Faces gradually reveals itself to be about three generations of actresses, spanning the spectrum from aspiring to successful to forgotten. Panahi chooses to keep the eldest of the trio almost entirely offscreen, a typically bold gambit that may well resonate more strongly for audiences familiar with the Iranian star to whom she’s repeatedly compared; I kept struggling to think of an American equivalent, but everyone who’s roughly the correct age—Helen Mirren, Diane…
Panahi playing around issues central to his work since his early days: power, class, the place of the artist, Iranian society’s sexism. It is a stronger imagined film than his recent output, milking a lot from Panahi’s position as distant observer/mediator as well as putting him in a position closer to patriarchy than usual.
A social satire, sympathetic document of stunted women's rights, and even, in the end, a sweet tribute to Abbas Kiarostami. It's now less surprising that Panahi keeps getting away with making movies under the Iranian government's ban than it is he keeps bettering himself.
Jafar Panahi's 3 Faces is a movie about cinema as a cultural force, focusing on three actresses who span the generations. Therefore it is also about Iran and the history which has shaped these women. The film begins as a mystery-thriller of sorts, but exists in Panahi's meta realist environment his films have inhabited since his filmmaking ban. He once again plays himself, though the story centres much less on him. 3 Faces becomes a collection of strange encounters across a short journey, where traditions are unearthed in rural settings. The society presented prioritises honour and saving face, creating conflicts which drive the film emotionally. As always though, Panahi manages to find some humour to the situation and 3 Faces is not as heavy a film as it could've been. It isn't the most compelling work he has made, but it is interesting and another fantastic show of Panahi's defiance.
AFI Fest - Film #14
I'm so glad that Jafar Panahi is making films. I also love the video that was obviously shot on a phone at the beginning of the film. It's really poor quality, but it aids the story so well and just goes to show that you just need basic technology to make a film these days. I was kind of hoping the whole movie was going to be shot on the phone, but it wasn't. That's okay. The rest of the footage is shot beautifully, so that works.
Some of the cultural customs of the villages that were right by the Turkish/Iranian border were interesting. Overall, not the strongest film of the festival, but definitely worth watching.
Vegan alert:
A cow suffers a fall and there is a discussion whether or not to kill it.
Vegetarian points:
A woman is asked about the price of meat and she replies that she’s a vegetarian.
You have no idea how much it annoys me when people dismiss any award an Iranian director – but especially Jafar Panahi – wins as mere political statements, as if the quality of their work alone isn't enough to warrant recognition. Yes, Panahi is not allowed to leave his country, and yes it is briefly mentioned but the movie's focus lies somewhere else.
Like Panahi's previous movie 3 Faces is heavily influenced by Abbas Kiarostami and while the similarities are hard to miss the movie still feels like its own thing with many elements that are so typical for Panahi. Not only is it a beautiful homage but it's also quite interesting to see how much the life on the…
[6]
Panahi's Close-Up, in its own low-key way: a film about how the desire to be a part of the entertainment industry essentially alienates a person from those one ostensibly wishes to entertain, rendering one's "gifts" solipsistic by default. We see this in the relationship between young Marziyeh (Marziyeh Rezaei) and her would-be mentor Behnaz (Behnaz Jafari).
Marziyeh's ambition is such an affront to the people of her village that she reaches out to Jafari by faking her own suicide. This can be perceived as a bit of adolescent drama gone amok, but it tends to prove the point of Marziyeh's critics. She thinks only of herself.
By contrast, we see Jafari interacting with fans of her TV show, although…
Added to: Jafar Panahi Ranked, 2018 Ranked & Iranian Cinema Ranked
Every film Jafar Panahi has made after he was sentenced with his infamous media and travel ban was some sort of way for him to hide. Hide from a place where he couldn’t make films to his hearts desires to the smallest, little crevices in his society where he secretly could. In This Is Not a Film he hid in his own apartment, frustrated and depressed; in Close Curtain he hid away in a house beside the Caspian Sea and let his depression take over his work to reveal one of his most complex meta-narratives to date; in Taxi Teheran he hid in a taxi cab - hidden in plain…
Iran is a nation steeped in tradition, and Panahi, very much like his mentor Kiarostami, has never shied away from observing and challenging the traditionalism of older generations of Iranians by examining the modern ideas and aspirations of the younger generation. I’m fairly certain a bit of 3 Faces went over my head, and what begins as one thing slowly becomes something else entirely, but Panahi’s meditative style and way of dealing with the conflict between old vs. new will never be uninteresting. I think in order to fully comprehend the themes of this film, it requires multiple viewings as well as a better, more comprehensive understanding of the ins and outs of Iranian culture and customs. What I can…
