to a cinemaof freedomas is conceivable.Yet, amid so much
possibility,he fails to make anythingof artisticmerit, and
allowshis obsessionto all but destroyhis life in the process.
Finally,havinglost everything else he cares about, he turns
the cameraon himself.
This film sharesa strikinglysimilarendingtoTaxi: in the
former,David’sapartmentis burglarised,and all his equip-
ment is stolen;in the latter, Panahi’scab is smashedand
looted,with the thief makingoff with the dash cam. Both
films end in darkness,each filmmaker-characterhavinglost
the capacityto createimages.3 Faces, too, ends with a car
being damaged– courtesyof Marziyeh’sbrother– but, this
time, the front windscreenis only cracked, and otherwise
unbroken. Panahi drives on.
DavidHeslinis editorofScreenEducationandsubeditorof
Metro,and also edits and writesfor onlinefilm journalSenses
ofCinema. Hehaswrittenarticlesonpoliticsandethicsfor
Overland, The National Timesand New Matilda. m
Endnotes
(^1) Fora lookat someof therecentachievementsandongoing
challengesof undergroundcinemain a localcontext,see
DavidHeslin,‘OtherVoices:Grace,Who Waits Aloneand
NewAustralianUnderground Cinema’,Metro, no. 200, 2019,
pp. 136–40.
(^2) See‘IranianFilmmakerJafarPanahiGetsSixyearSentence’,
BBC News, 20 December2010,https://www.bbc.com/news/
world-middle-east-12045248, accessed1 June 2019.
(^3) Panahihas indicatedthat the secondhalf of the film was, in
deed,planned:‘WithTheMirror[...] I startedto be concerned
with the form.One idea is that in the middleof the film every
thingwillchange.’SeePanahi,quotedin PeterRist,‘InReal
Time:AnInterviewwithJafarPanahi’,Offscreen, vol. 13,
no. 11, November2009,https://offscreen.com/view/interview
_panahi, accessed1 June 2019.
(^4) Again,reallifecreepsin:a cursorysearchof theInternetMovie
Database(IMDb),alongsidethe acknowledgementsin 3 Faces’
credits,suggeststhat Jafarireally was shootinganotherfilm
- The Old Road(ManijehHekmat,2018)– aroundthe time
3 Faceswasmade,andthatit is likely Hekmat’s voice that
we overhear on the phone.
(^5) TheleadactorofGheisar, BehrouzVossoughi,is alsoreferred
to in 3 Faceswhen a villager holds up a poster of him as a sym
bol of virility.
(^6) InTaxi, Panahi’syoungnieceHanabeginsto list someof the
requirementsthat are placedon Iranianfilms in orderfor them
to be consideredfor distribution:‘respectof Islamicheadscarf,
no contactbetweenmen and women,avoidsordidrealism,
avoidviolence,avoidthe use of a tie for good guys ...’ See also
CharlesRecknagel,‘IslamicRevolutionCan’tUpstageIranian
Cinema’,Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, 10 February2014,
https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-islamic-censorship-cinema/2525
9188.html, accessed1 June 2019.
(^7) NewWaveFilms, 3 Facespress kit, 2019, p. 8.
(^8) Recknagel,op.cit.
(^9) SeeHillaryMayell,‘Thousandsof WomenKilledforFamily
“Honor”’,NationalGeographic, 12 February2002,https://
[http://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2002/02/thousands-of](http://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/2002/02/thousands-of)
womenkilledforfamilyhonor/, accessed1 June 2019.
(^10) JafarPanahi,quotedin JenniferMerin,‘JafarPanahiChatswith
JenniferMerinreOffside’,Allianceof WomenFilm Journalists,
11 March2007,https://awfj.org/blog/2007/03/11/jennifer
-merin-interviews-jafar-panahi-re-offside/, accessed 1 June
2019.
(^11) JafarPanahi,quotedin DougSaunders,‘MyInterviewwithJafar
Panahi’,DougSaundersofficialwebsite,23 May 2007,http://
[http://www.dougsaunders.net/2007/05/interview-jafar-panahi-iran/,](http://www.dougsaunders.net/2007/05/interview-jafar-panahi-iran/>,)
accessed1 June 2019.
(^12) CelluloidDreams,Taxipresskit, 2015,p. 9.
(^13) His only previousappearancein his own films was in the key
transitionsequenceofTheMirror, in whichhe is brieflyseen dis
cussinghow to handleMina’sdefectionwith his crew;there,he
is arguablyless a characterthan part of a formalist exercise.
(^14) NewWaveFilms,op.cit.,p.7.
(^15) SeeRachelDonadio,‘JafarPanahi,IranianFilmmaker,Persists
Despitea Ban’,The New York Times, 24 September2015,
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/movies/jafar-panahi
-iranian-filmmaker-persists-despite-a-ban.html, accessed
1 June 2019.
(^16) ‘Iran RightsLawyerWon’tAppealNew Jail Ruling:Husband’,
France 24 , 17 March2019,https://www.france24.com/
en/20190317-iran-rights-lawyer-wont-appeal-new-jail-ruling
-husband, accessed 1 June 2019.
Above, L–R:Jafari; Marziyeh; an elderly villager holds up a poster of Behrouz Vossoughi
http://www.metromagazine.com.au | © ATOM | Metro Magazine 201• 63