Art as Resistance: History and the Individual in Jafar Panahi's '3 Faces'

Jafar Panahi's latest work is characterised by equivocation and enigma, the famed Iranian director employing such techniques to circumvent his homeland's censorship regime. Yet, with its inclusion of stars present and past as well as its blurring of fiction and fact, 3 Faces nonetheless manages to put forward pointed social commentary laden with extradiegetic significance, writes David Heslin.

Additional keywords:
Asian cinema, Iran, arthouse, Behnaz Jafari, authoritarian, tradition, patriarchy, Shahrzad, self-reflexive, metaphor, Tehran Taxi.